Grey Angel
by raven-ink
Summary: This story is about Rachelle Roth. A girl who has witnesed a death of someone that she loved and trusted. She finds herself in a complicated situation where the onLy options are suicide or giving up.
1. Chapter 1

PROLOUGE

I was sitting alone, watching as the day turned to night, on an outstretched limb of a tree. There was a small breeze twisting through the leaves making them dance to the evening's breeze. My hair twisted in the light wind and then ceased to move as the wind died down. I watched the shadows grow long. Little did I know this was the last moment before my life would change forever.

My head shot up from its position of resting against the tree's branch when I heard a scream coming from my small town. I scrambled to get down from my hiding place but my jeans caught onto a little bit of a branch that was sticking straight out. Reaching down to get my jeans uncaught, I became unbalanced and slipped off the side of the branch landing on my feet but because the impact was so powerful I fell to my knees scrapping my hands trying to catch myself. Then I heard it again. The scream echoed throughout the trees.

"Sarah…" I whispered. It sounded just like my little sister's scream.

I jumped to my feet and ran towards our house. I rounded a corner and almost smacked into a trash can someone forgot to take in. I kept running through the deserted streets overcome by the buildings' dark shadows. I rounded to corner leading to my street. I just kept going. I ran up the steps and through the front door.

"Sarah!" I yelled running throughout the house. "Mom!"

I heard sobs coming from our basement as I passed the stairs leading down. Despite my fear and my growing heart rate, I pounded down the stairs. My heart kept going faster as I descended the stairs. I reached the bottom. I could not see perfectly, for my eyes were still adjusting to their new surroundings. I heard the sobs again and they were coming from the only other room down there. My heart raced as my body just barley moved towards the door leading to the other room. It was slightly ajar, leaking out light from the other side. My body stiffened as my hand took hold of the doorknob. I felt my hand pull lightly at the door. It opened with no trouble. My heart pounding in my chest. The door eased open and my heart stopped. I felt my breathe get caught somewhere in my chest and a scream was pushing at my lips trying to escape.

"Sarah?" I whispered. A whisper was all I could do. I fought of the urge to faint.

Sarah laid limb on the floor. Her body sprawled out. A pool of blood surrounded her. Her eyes still open but frozen, staring at nothing. At least nothing in this world.

I slowly looked from her body to the six men standing behind Sarah. The stared at me with cold eyes. They wore the uniform signifying they where part of the military. As my eyes scanned the men, my eye caught blood on one of the men's hand and chest. I squinted, recognizing him.

"George?" I cried.

"Yeah it's me." He said with a slight smirk on his face. His eyes seemed to say anything but hurt or sorry…more like pride.

"You bastard!" I screamed at him tears coming to my eyes. I struggled to keep from letting out a cry of anger.

"Just doing my job…and proud of it." He said wiping off the blood on his pants.

"**_You_** k-killed her…" I croaked. My mouth and throat were dry and it hurt to speak.

"I know you know why, Rachelle. She was a threat." George bent down to retie one of his boots. He sighed.

"She w-was only n-nine." I whimpered looking at her face. I imagined her sitting in the living room when they barged in and dragged her here and slit her throat as she was screaming for help with tears rolling down her face. I looked back at the men a tears streaming down my cheek, gathering at my chin then dropping to the floor.

"Don't cry. It won't be forever that you two are apart." George took a step forward.

"Don't come near me!" I screamed taking a step back.

George stepped over Sarah's dead body.

I looked over to the side. A woman, my mother kneeled on the floor with her hands burying her face. She just kneeled there sobbing.

"How could y-you do this to **_me_**!" I yelled at the murderer running out the door and back up the stairs. I could hear the men coming up after me. I reached the top and slammed the door as hard as I could. I ran for the front door. I pulled it open with such force that I almost broke it right off the hinges. I stumbled down the steps and into the street. I turned my face up towards the sky. It was a clear night, no clouds. Just stars and a quarter moon. _'I have to fly.' _I closed my eyes. When I opened them I had my grey wings spread out and ready to take off. I jumped up and flapped my wings, soaring into the open sky. My heart felt as though it was going to break. I couldn't believe it. She's dead, and he betrayed me. To think I actually trusted him, I thought he cared. I mean wasn't I suppose to trust him? He was my boyfriend. Tears were still gushing from my eyes. My throat still dry and my heart still pounding, still breaking.

"I love you Sarah…" I knew that somehow, somewhere she was listening and could hear me.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 1

It had been a month since the day my life changed. The day my sister died and my, now ex, boyfriend betrayed me. I still have nightmares of what Sarah must have gone through, up until the moment her heart stopped. I'd wake up screaming sometimes.

The alarm clock blared. It didn't matter cause I was already awake putting the tea kettle on the stove. I always had herbal tea in the morning and throughout the day. I was never a coffee person because it was bitter and unlike herbal tea, it only got you hyper. Herbal tea wakes me up in the morning, but also soothes me.

"Looks like another day of nothing…" I said to myself turning off the alarm clock.

I sat down on the bed and looked around the hotel room. My mind drifted back to a month ago…

I had been flying for what seemed forever. My eyes wet with tears and my throat still burning. I knew why the feared Sarah. I knew exactly why the feared her. I thought of the horrific scene…My little sisters body sprawled out, her hair wet with the blood pooling around her. One of her arm was outreached towards her sobbing mother as if her last act before she died was a plea of help towards her mom.

I kept my wings outstretched and still. I was gliding towards the mountain that surrounded our town. My plan was to run away. Run **_far_** away. I was running so far away, I'll be in another realm.

There are four realms, The Humans' realm, the Angel's realm (which would be my realm), Heaven and Hell. Although there have been many arguments that Heaven and Hell did not count as realms. I could not run to Heaven because only the higher power decides that. And I could not run to Hell because my father, the supreme Dark Angel, would hunt me down and perform the ceremony in which half of me is destroyed. That half of me is the White Angel half, my good pure half. If that half is destroyed, I will only have my Dark Angel half, my dark evil side. So I was forced to runaway into the Humans' realm.

I am a Grey Angel, like my sister Sarah. My mother is a White Angel who was tricked into marrying my father, a Dark Angel. I was born first, half evil and half good. Of course my father was the only one who knew it. Then my Sarah was born, twenty-five percent evil. And that is why the killed her, out of fear that she might grow to be like her father, the Supreme Dark Angel. And that is also why they want to kill me, even darker that my sister ever was going to be.

Sarah and I also had a mix of white magic and black magic. We could heal, move and destroy things with my mind. I have to meditate to keep this power in check.

I darted through the trees. I could see the cave in the side of the mountain. This cave held the four doorways into the four realms.

The six men weren't following me so they probably went to go warn the Emperor.

RRRREEEEEEE!

The cry of the tea kettle brought me back to reality. I stood up and walked to the stove. I turned the knob until it read off and poured the hot water into my mug, plopping a tea bag into it. Obviously, I made it to the Humans' realm or I wouldn't be here waiting for my tea to be ready.

Thankfully my realm is pretty much like the Humans' realm dew to the White Angels who get assigned to be a guardian Angel's assistant (Only Gold Angels, from Heaven, can be a true Guardian Angels. So you can imagine that being their assistant is a great honor.) and go to the Humans' realm and see how the humans function and their inventions. Then the White Angel brings back their findings and we adopt them. We have the same money system, educational system, and technology system. The only thing that is different is that we have Empires, realms, Emperors, and Empresses.

I checked the mug. It was ready so I picked it up and brought it to the table. I tilted the mug towards my lips taking a sip of the calming liquid.

Since I know no one and have no place to stay, I now live in this hotel room.

"Oh crap. I have to get a job." I moaned rolling my eyes.

I did have my eye on one café down the road. I wasn't sure what it was called but I read an ad in the newspaper declaring they where hiring. It seemed that the café had a dark atmosphere, which was fine with me, more than fine really. I have always been a writer of dark poetry ever since I was little. I mostly liked it because you can say that you were a dark angel but it didn't have to mean it literally. I never shared it with anyone but Sarah because it freaked any White Angel out. I never had any friends except my sister and mom. Sarah did more art then writing so she would illustrate my poetry sometimes.

I sat there reminiscing about the earlier times when Sarah was alive. I took a sip of my tea. I looked down at floor remembering the time hen Sarah got in a fist fight with another girl at the school because she was being bitchy to her. I had to break it up. I smiled at the picture of the girl all scratched up with a bloody nose, and then there was Sarah with only but a bruised arm.

I swallowed the last of the warm liquid. I stood and placed the mug in the sink. I'd wash it later. But for now I was going to wait for the phone call that meant there was an opening in the Jump City High. Yep, that's right. I was going to school here. I figured, what does a normal teen do most of the day? Go to school and have a job. I admit that I'm not a normal teen here, but I had to blend in. So I at least had to **_act_** like it.

'_I'll just wait fifteen minutes. And if the High school didn't phone, then I'd go and do my school shopping.' _I picked up the copy of Edgar Allen Poe's Book of Poetry that I bought at the bookstore around the corner and sat down on the living room chair both my knees up and the book resting on them. I opened the book to were I left off and began to read.

A few minutes later, the phone rang. I reached over to the coffee table and picked it up.

"Hello?" I asked in my monotone voice.

"Hello. Is this Ms. Roth's room?" A man's voice asked.

"Yeah…"

"I have a Principle Warsh from Jump City High on hold for you."

"Put her on." I said with a sigh.

There was silence then a click and then…

"Hello? Is this Ms. Rachelle Roth?" A high pitch women's voice came.

"Yep." I rolled my eyes at the formal name.

"I am the Principle of Jump City High and there is an opening for you."

"Great." I bluntly replied twisting the phone's cord around my finger.

"You can even start tomorrow. But it is a field trip to the like for a science thing and the class might be able to swim. So bring your swim suite."

"Got it..." I wasn't actually going to though.

"And you have the supply list of the uniform, laptop, pens, pencils, rulers…"

"Yeah. Okay then…bye." I said. I hung up the phone.

'_I am so not swimming.'_ I hated the bikini thing and the 'guys checking you out' thing. Not to mention the pointless thought of splashing and frolicking in the water when you can do that in the bathtub or shower.

_'Well, now it's time to go uniform shopping.'_ I had pretty much down everything. I have pens and pencils, a ruler, a pair of scissors, a binder, and last but not least, a laptop. The only thing I need is my uniform: khaki pleated skirt, white collared shirt, and navy tie. The school also had their own hooded sweatshirt which was navy and said across the chest 'Jump City High'. So yeah, Jump High is a public school with uniforms.

I grabbed the room keys and money and left the hotel. There was a department store down the street that I saw the other day, so I figured I would go there.

When I made it to the store I realized they were having a 50 off sale.

"Just my luck. Crowds." I moaned pushing open the door.

To get to the Junior's section I had to go up an escalator. But as soon as I reached the top, I wish I hadn't. There were teenagers everywhere. Girls were talking on their cell phones and chatting it up while ransacking the clothes' racks. And the guys were being…well, guys.

I slowly made my way to the closest clothing rack. I pushed hangers aside, looking for anything that appealed to me. _'Ugh. I hate shopping. It so stupid and boring.'_ Just then a girl came over with one of her friends looking through the same clothes' rack as me. Then another came and another. I moved to a different clothing rack. There was a girl just standing there. She looked tired and somewhat depressed. I started looking through the rack. _'Oh crap! I forgot to check if the café gave me a call!' _I mentally kicked myself. I looked for a phone. That was no feat because half the insane shopping girls were talking on them. I decided to ask the tired depressed girl next to me.

"Excuse me." I said in my raspy voice.

The girl looked at me with deep brown eyes.

"Do you have a phone I could barrow?"

She silently nodded and took out a phone from her purse and handed it to me. I dialed the hotel's number.

"Hello, this is Good Nights Hotel, may I help you?"

"Yeah, are there any messages from the Dark Days Cafe for Rachelle Roth?" I asked.

"No. Sorry ma'am."

I thanked him and hung up. I turned back to the girl.

"You want to work at Dark Days Café?" She asked me taking the phone. She had what seemed like a sparkle in her eye.

"Yeah." So?" I looked at her.

"I work there! I can get you a job there, too!" She had an innocent smile on her face, but her eyes kept saying 'I am tired and lonely'.

"You'd do that for a stranger?" I asked skeptical.

"Sure." She said quietly, and then looked down. "Follow me." She headed for the escalator. I ran after her.

"I don't even know your name." I said.

"Oh, sorry…I'm Karin Fin."

"Rachelle Roth."  
We silently exited the store and started to walk down the street. We crossed 10th street, and then rounded the corner. We had reached the café in less than 15 minutes. Karin led me into the café. It was dimly lit and had tables with a single candle lit on them scattered everywhere. At the far corner there was a half circle stage with a microphone stand and a tall stool in the middle. A spot light shown down on the two objects. Then on the other side of the room was a counter where the costumers where supposed to order. Next to the counter was an area with couches and chairs and bean bags that you could hang out on and read. And even if you didn't bring a book, there were a couple of book shelves that were filled with books. Ironic, I know. Bookshelves filled with books.

Karin wound through the tables and ended up at a back door. She knocked on it.

"Come in." A muffled voice said.

Karin opened the door letting me in. There was a man sitting at a desk with his back facing us. He stood turning on his heels.

"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Dante, but Rachelle Roth wants to apply to work here.

He looked at her then stared at me. So, I stared back. He then turned back to his desk then picked up a paper and handed it to me.

"When you have this filled out, give it back to me." Mr. Dante ordered.

We left his office and sat at a vacant table. Karin fetched a pen and gave it to me. I began to fill out the application.

A while later, I was finished with the form and knocked on Mr. Dante's door. I stepped inside and waited for him to take the form. He sat there for a while, reading the paper then looked up at me.

Welcome on board Ms. Roth. Ms. Fin will show you to the employees' room so you can get a name tag and apron. You will also be shadowing Ms. Fin for a week starting tomorrow." He paused and waited for my response. When I didn't respond, he said, "You're dismissed."

I walked out and gave a faint smile at Karin.

"I got it." I said. "And I am supposed to shadow you for a week starting tomorrow."

"Yay!" She said rather happy. "Let me show you the Employees' room." She grabbed my hand, which made me feel a little uncomfortable, and dragged me behind the counter and through the kitchen and into a back room. There was a table with chairs in the middle and on one wall hooks that bore black aprons.

"Ok. I'll have your name tag for you by tomorrow when you start work." Karin said heading towards the hooks on the wall. "This is part of our uniform so you have to wear one."

"What about the other part of the uniform?" I asked.

"Girls wear any black shirt with either black jeans, or a black skirt."

Karin turned towards the table. "And this is where we eat lunch."

"Ok. But now I have to go shopping for my uniform." I started for the door.

"Ok then. Bye!" Karin called after me.

'_That's right I have to go shopping for a uniform. Oh God, High school…anything can happen in high school…'_


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 2

I woke up to the blaring of the alarm clock in my ear. I looked at what the digital numbers read.

"6:00 a.m. right on time." I said to nobody in particular.

I hit the off button and pulled the blankets off of me. I stood up and walked into the bathroom. I turned on the shower and undressed. I waited until the water was warm and got in.

After my shower I put on the tea pot and then got dressed in the uniform I had purchased the other day after I got my job at Dark Days Café. Then I poured the steaming water into my mug. Then, put the tea bag into the water. I packed my school supplies in my school bag and then returned to my tea which was ready by now and started to sip at it. I checked the time to make sure I wasn't running late. It was 7:25. And that's when I remembered it was a free dress day because it was a field trip. I finished up the tea and quickly got undressed and changed into my jeans and a black tank top. By then it was time to leave so I grabbed my room key, money, and school bag.

The morning air was crisp and it felt good. I also knew that it was probably going to be one of those hotter days, I just could feel it. I walked down the street and into a little bagel place and bout on plain bagel with nothing on it. I ate that on the way to the high school.

I reached the campus at 7:45 a.m. The outside was crowded at all but inside was a different story. Like the department store, there were girls everywhere most of them hanging all over their boyfriends and talking on there cell phones. While the guys where throwing the football to each other from across the hallway and doing whatever guys do. I sighed and walked towards the crowd of insane and demented teenagers.

"Wait, I don't even know my locker number!" I said to myself a little annoyed.

I struggled to not drown in the crowd of chaos as I made my way towards the principle's office.

"Hey! Watch it!" I heard someone yell from someplace. I looked up and saw a football coming at my face. I quickly ducked out of the way and shot and icy glance at the kid who held the football. I started to walk towards the principle's office when I almost bumped into a couple of blockheads making out.

"A room would be nice!" I yelled in disgust. The two looked at me and shrugged and went back to kissing.

I couldn't take it. I ran through the crowd until I reached the office and slipped inside. It was a lot quieter in there, which was perfect for me since I was getting a headache from being out in the halls. A woman at the desk typing away at the keyboard looked up.

"May I help you?" She asked lowering her glasses to get a better look at me.

"Sure, I'm new here and I just want to know my locker number."

"Your name?" She pushed the glasses back in place and started to type as I said my name.

"Rachelle Roth."

She typed around for a few seconds then looked back up at me.

"Number 347 is your locker. Did you get your class' schedule?"

"No."

She started to print something out and handed it to me.

"Oh, thanks." I said reaching for the schedule she had just printed out.

"Anytime dear."

I walked out and looked around for my locker. It was a difficult task being that every teen was crowed into hallways and where blocking my view of the locker number, but I found my locker after a while of searching. I stuffed my things into the small little compartment and kept the things that were necessary for my first class which was science. I closed the locker and turned around.

"Rachelle?" Karin was pushing through the crowd with her books in her arms.

'_Well at least there's one person who I know.'_ I gave a small wave.

"I didn't know you went here!" Karin said heading towards me.

Suddenly, some jerk had pushed another guy who pushed him harder causing him to fall onto Karin. Her books flew everywhere. I ran over to her to make she was okay and then looked at the asshole who bumped into her. He was helping himself up and starting to walk away. I grabbed his collar and pulled back. He stumbled backwards almost falling again.

"Let go of my ass-." He stopped when he saw it was me, a girl.

"Help her up." I demanded.

"Help who up?" He said confused.

I sighed.

"The girl you bumped into and made her drop all of her books which are probably, knowing the jerks that go here, are being trampled."

"No! Why should I. You can't make me do anything." He tried to yanked his collar out of my hand, but I held tighter.

"Now!" I started daggers at the boy who immediately said yes and help Karin to her feet and ran off.

The bell rand, which signified that it was time for your first class of a torturous day at Jump City High.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 3

Karin and I walked down the hallways of Jump High.

"Thanks for showing me to my first class." I said in a monotone voice.

"It's nothing. We have the same first class, science." Karin didn't even look up from the floor.

We walked in silence for a little while and then finally we reached our destination.

"Here we are…" Karin held the door open so I could step through. I nodded my head in thanks.

The room was mostly white. The teacher wore a lab coat and had safety goggles around his neck. There was a dry eraser board at the front of the classroom and the periodic table poster at the back. In rows where lad tables that fit two people and had an assortment of science equipment on them.

We proceeded to an empty table and sat down, placing our books on the tabletop. As soon as the room was filled with its students, the teacher began.

"Good morning boy and girls. I hope we brought our swim suites today!" The teacher smiled as the class yelled yeses. I didn't say anything. And surprisingly neither did Karin. She sat there with her arms crossed on the desk and eyes on the floor. _'Gee, she doesn't look like sunshine.'_

"Settle down my students. We leave for the lake in a matter of minutes and when we come back, don't pack up because I'm going to assign lab partners." The teacher turned towards the board and began to write down something. But I didn't know what it was because I wasn't paying attention.

"Hey Karin…" I asked lightly tapping her.

"What?" She whispered back to me.

"What the professor's name?"

"Mr. Michael."

I looked up at the board noticing he had drawn some sort of chart. I could care less what it said so I opened my notebook and began to write. I started to write whatever came to mind. And what came to mind was my crapped up life. My sister.

"What're you writing?" Karin asked in a curious voice. "If you don't mind me asking…"

"Poetry." Was my simply reply.

I sat there with my hand jotting down whatever words my hand felt like writing.

"Ok, the buss is ready for us!" Mr. Michael said slipping into his out door coat and turning off the lights. The class jumped out of their seat and ran for the door with their towels and goggles and whatever other stupid thing they could think of bringing to the lake. That included non-air filled rafts and sharks and tubes that they'd blow when they got there.

I waited there with Karin until most of the pushy students had made there way through the door. Moments later, we were on the bus headed to the lake which we had to hike to. Karin had fallen asleep next to me. And since I had nothing to do but be bored, I became bored. It's not a good thing for me to be bored because then my mind drifts and my mind drifted to the dark place in my mind that held my sister's death and my ex-boyfriend, and my situation with my father and the fact that I'll probably never see my mother again. _'Why does my life just go from bad to worse?'_ The truth is, for the past month I've been tormented with the solution of my problems, suicide. The idea keeps coming back to me. _'I mean, I have lost my mom, my sister and best friend, my dad and my life in the Angels' Realm.'_

I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the tears that threatened to spill from my eye. I felt the pain in my throat that I had felt when I first saw Sarah dead.

"We made it safe and sound!" Mr. Michael yelled from the front of the bus.

We had turned off onto a dirt road and had parked somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Everyone began to demount the bus with their backpacks filled with their lunches, beach crap and who knows what. I leaned over and gently shook Karin awake. She looked up at me then the people getting off and then the out the window and the scenery.

"We're here?" She yawned and stretched.

"The bus is stopped, isn't it?" I raised my eyebrow.

Karin stood up and followed me off the bus. Mr. Michael was gathering the students around him.

"We are going to start at that trail over there…" He pointed to a path leading into the dense forest. "And we'll end up at the lake. While we're hiking, our bus will be driven to our lake so that we can jump on it after swimming and go directly back to school."

He then unzipped his backpack and stuck his hand in it, rummaging through it until he pulled out a handful of bunched up strings with something at the end of them.

"These are whistles. Each of you will wear one around your neck so that incase you get lost you can blow them so we can find you." Mr. Michael explained.

The teenagers all took a whistle and hung it around their necks.

"Ok, now that we have that done, let's head out…and no straying from the path." The teacher said leading the group to the beginning of the pathway. The forest was a mixture of greens and yellows, and the ground was moist. I could hear a bird's call echo through the trees.

It reminded me of sitting in that tree…the night I heard Sara's scream. The night she died. _'Crap! Stop it Rachelle!'_ I mentally slapped myself for letting my mind drifted.

"Gross! My feet are getting muddy, and there's strange sounds!" Some prissy princess type girl whined.

"She's the popular girl at our school. You know, the queen bee person." Karin whispered to me as some stupid guy swooped Ms. Prissy Princess off her feet.

"Don't worry…I'll protect you." The idiot crooned to the queen bee he had picked up.

I rolled my eyes.

"Does that mean you want to be picked up too?" Someone said from behind me.

I turned to see a guy staring at me. He had black hair that actually seemed to have a hint of purple in it because it was so black. He had it somewhat spiked up. He had green eyes that looked like the forest's leaves. One thing that I noticed is he wore a black armband that was pulled up around his upper arm.

"No. Why would you think that?" I said turning back around. I kept walking foreword.

"Because I saw you roll your eyes when that guy picked up Shelly. So I thought maybe you were jealous." He said following Karin and me down the path.

"I would never be jealous of a bitch like that!"

"What makes you say that she's a bitch?" He asked walking up beside me with his head cocked a little to the side.

"Just because she wore the wrong attire for hiking, she gets some guy to carry her." I answered walking a little faster.

I heard him snicker a little then fall back so he was walking behind me.

"Retard." I mumbled just loud enough for Karin to hear.

We kept on winding through the forest stopping every so often so Mr. Michael could show us some fungi or weird species of animal.

Shelly, the bitchy queen bee had apparently got some other helpless male soul to carry her backpack and two other guys carry her throne style through the forest. Karin walked beside me mostly silent except when some weird species was pointed out and she'd cringed and tell me how disgusting it looked. My mind drifted in and out of the memories of the past and now, surprisingly, the guy who had talked to me earlier. But I didn't know why. We kept walking until we departed the forest and entered the sunlight. I shielded my eyes from the sudden light. The scene before us was a lake that had a sandy beach with a few boulders outlining the forest's border. There was also a wooden dock that lead into the water. Everyone dashed for a spot on the sand to put his or her belongings. Then everybody, but Karin and me, started to strip of their clothes revealing their swim suites.

I sat on a broken tree trunk that had fallen onto the beach. Karin sat next to me. She was looking down while I was looking up at the sky. It was powered with puffs of clouds. There were a few birds here and there. A raven perched on a treetop looking around its surroundings.

"So why did you not want to swim?" I asked Karin still looking up at the clouds.

"W-well, if you p-promise not to tell anyone…I kind of think I'm too skinny…" Karin stuttered.

"Too **_skinny_**?" I asked a little shocked.

I mean it's usually to fat. Not to skinny. It's like anorexia in reverse. Just then, I noticed that boy with the armband, now in swim trunks, was talking to a group of guys and then looked back at Karin and me. I poked Karin in the shoulder and pointed at the group of boys.

"They're talking about us." I said.

"How do you know?"

"They were pointing at us." I replied.

"Don't worry about it. They're probably being jerks." Karin leaned back on the log and looked up.

"I'm not worrying." I mumbled leaning the other way and looking back up at the sky.

But because we were paying no mind to our surroundings, we didn't notice the guys sneaking up on us. Out of nowhere, I felt hands grab me up in bridal style.

"What the hell!" I shrieked as I left the comfort of being on the log and into someone's arms. "Let go of me!"

"I knew you wanted to be held! Wanna go for a swim?" His voice held over my screams of surprise.

"First, put me on the ground! Second, do I look like I want to go swimming?" I yelled referring to me not wearing a swim suite. But he kept walking towards the dock. I started to try and struggle my way out of the grip I was in. He only held tighter.

I stole a moment to look over to see if Karin was ok. The other guys had tackled her and were now carrying her towards us. She was struggling too.

I started to kick. He laughed and started to run for the dock with the guys who were carrying Karin close behind. Karin was screaming bloody murder.

It was only then that I realized where we were headed…the dock, which meant water. _'Oh shit!'_ We came closer to the end until he was at the edge. He stopped and looked down at me. He had the shittiest, boyish grin on his face.

"Put me down!" I screamed.

"Ok." He jumped off the edge.

I screamed as we hit the ice-cold water. The jerk was still holding me under water so I put my hands of his chest and gave a good hard shove. He let go of me and I swam to the surface. I gasped as I broke out of the water, a few seconds later he came up next to me.

"First, that whole _"Let me down!" "Ok"_ thing was so cliché! And second, YOU JERK!" I yelled at him, my face was red with anger. He just laughed really loud like and arrogant ass. I looked up at the dock and saw Karin in between two guys holding her forearms ready to push her in.

"Now Richard?" Asked one of the two guys to the guy who jumped in with me.

Richard just smiled. "Yeah!"

"3...2...1!" They yelled and pushed the screaming Karin in.

I swam to where Karin had connected with the water. She came up a few seconds later. She drew in a breath of air and then looked at me.

"Are you okay?" My voice was full of concern.

"Y-yeah." She squeaked.

I looked up at the hysterically laughing boys who had pushed Karin in. They stopped laughing as soon as they saw my icy glare.

"You are so lucky I'm in this freaking cold water and not up there!" I warned them.

Karin started to swim to shore. I swam after her. The boy named Richard was still treading water when I passed him. I stopped and looked at him. He smirked and arched a brow.

"Yes?" He asked stifling a laugh.

I splashed him in the face.

"That's not very nice young lady." He said grabbing my ankle as I tried to swim away. He yanked me back towards him. I spun around looking him in the face.

"Let go of me…or else." I said slowly through clenched teeth.

He let go.

"Good boy." I patted him on the head like he was five.

I caught up to Karin just before we got out of the water.

"Hey, Rachelle?" Karin sounded sort of nervous.

"Yeah Karin." I said with just a hint of left over anger in my voice.

"C-can you walk in front of me?" Karin asked me getting out of the water.

"But why?" I asked looking back at her. I struggled to keep my mouth from dropping.

Her clothes stuck to her body like spandex. She was so thin it was…surprising. I never really noticed how thin she was because she wore sweatshirts or something that hid her upper body.

"K-Karin! Are you ok?" I asked really worried. Then I noticed that most of the class was watching Karin. Shelly stared at Karin then leaned over to one of her girlfriends and whispered something. Karin looked like she was going to die. She ran over to a near by tree and hid behind it.

"Oh no…"I ran after her.

She was sitting on the ground with her hands burying her face as she cried into them. I walked up slowly to her and kneeled down. I put a hand on her shoulder and gently began to rub.

"Sorry." I said quietly.

She looked up and tried to talk but she was crying to hard.

"It's ok. I know you're probably embarrassed…"

"It's not that!" Karin cried. Her face was pink and tears soaked her cheeks.

I sat beside her. I knew what it felt to be hysterically sad and have no one there for me, so I wanted to be there for Karin so she didn't feel the same way as me.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, you know." I sat next to her, leaning against the tree.

"Everyone's going to think I'm anorexic and I'm not!" She perched her head on my shoulder. She was still shaking from the hysteria. I didn't know what to say so I let her just cry.

"I don't think your anorexic." I comforted after a while.

She lifted her head up. "Thank you. You're a true friend."

Wow, I actually have a friend. I never really realized this, but I have never ever had a friend. Just Sarah and my Mom. _'Oh, Sarah, I miss you.'_ A small tear made its way down my cheek as I remembered my dead sister and best friend. I quickly wiped it away. I noticed that Karin's violent shakes of hysteria had settled down.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked.

"Can I tell you a very deep secret?" Karin sat up and wiped the left over tears away.

"If you want, I guess."

"But I can trust you right? Its just I have to tell someone and since you're my only friend…" Karin explained.

"Again, only if you want to." I really didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable, like she **_had_** to tell me.

"Ok, so…my…" She paused taking in a deep breath. "See…the r-reason I'm so s-skinny..." She started crying again. "M-my mom was m-murdered two years ago." She took another deep breath.

"It's ok." I felt bad for her. I really did. And that would be my White Angel side.

Karin started talking again.

"So now I l-live with my d-dad, and he…h-he's…" She couldn't finish because she just broke out crying again. _'Wow she really hasn't cried for a long time considering how much she was crying.'_

"Sorry, it's kind of hard to talk about." She waited a few seconds to start again. "Anyway, now I live with my dad and he drinks all the time. He never use to drink but now he blames me for my mothers death. So he punishes me by starving me. I haven't had anything to eat for a week. He gives me no money to buy cafeteria food." She curled up and started to rock back and forth.

"Please understand, that I've never been through what you're going through, but I have been through a lose similar to yours." I sympathized.

Karin just cried into her arms.

"All the money I earn from my job at the Dark Day Café, he takes to buy more alcohol.

"Why don't you quit?"

"I'm scared of what he might do!" Karin cried.

I stood up and looked behind the tree at the beach. Almost of the entire class was out of the water and getting ready to leave.

"Com'n Karin. The bus is leaving." I offered with my hand outreached towards her to help her up. She looked up and grabbed my hand. She stood up and wiped the tears away. "And I promise never to tell anyone." I reassured her.

We walked to the bus only to be faced with a long bus ride ahead.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 4

Karin's eyes were blood shot from crying so hard. We sat pretty much at the back. We were still soaking wet and cold and not to mention uncomfortable.

I thought that she might need her space so I didn't talk to her. Karin just played with her hands. I couldn't believe what she was going through. _'I have to help her.' _ I was going to buy her lunch with the money I earn and work extra time so I could feed myself. I know it would be like having breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday but it would help even if she had a meal a day. If I didn't do anything, I'd feel guilty when ever I sat down for a meal.

"Oh my God! Did you see that girl? She was so skinny! She is sooo anorexic!" Exclaimed Shelly a few seats in front of me.

Apparently, Karin had heard it too because she looked at me once Shelly finished her sentence and mouthed the words 'See? I told you!'

"I know! At least you can pull looking skinny without anorexia!" Said one of Shelly's girl followers.

I looked at Karin who had a tear rolling down her cheek. Her head was down. I could tell Karin was in pain. I couldn't take it any longer! I arose from my seat and walked up to where Shelly and her followers sat.

"That girl has a name. It's Karin. And she is **_not_** anorexic!" I said in a stern voice staring at Shelly in the eye.

"Who she?" Shelley asked the girl sitting next to her.

"I'm not sure…" She replied. The girl looked up at me. "Who are you?"

"Rachelle."

Shelly seemed somewhat satisfied.

"Well, **_Rachelle_**, you can go because I really don't give a care what you have to say."

"I'm not going anywhere." I said staring daggers at her.

"Ok, why are you getting so worked up over the fact that that Karin girl is anorexic?" She asked.

"It's not a fact that Karin is anorexic you bit…" I could not have finished my profanity because I was suddenly pulled down into a seat diagonal from Shelly's seat.

"Who the hell just pulled me down?" I growled turning my head to see Richard. "Why do you keep tormenting me?"

"Well, I just decided to save you from getting kicked off the bus for yelling a profanity."

"You mean like how you threw me into the lake?" I asked with a hint of pout in my tone.

"Your still mad at me? I got wet too." I could tell that last remark was meant to be a joke. But it was a dumb joke.

"Yeah, you had on a swim suite and you have a towel." I said looking at the towel-covered boy.

"So? I came prepared and you didn't. Your point?" Richard said with a smirk.

"So, I had on clothes and am now cold!" I retorted. I was looking straight in front of me at the seat while he was turned in his seat looking at me. I could feel his eyes on me.

Richard took off his towel and handed it to me. I looked at the towel then at him.

"What? I 'm trying to be nice!" He exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air.

A few minutes passed of awkward silence.

"That was pretty gracious of you to stand up for that girl, Karin…But she is probably anorexic." Richard said trying to make conversation.

"Thank you and she is NOT anorexic. The reason why she didn't want to go swimming was because she was too skinny. Does that seem anorexic to you?" I looked at him. He was considering the information.

For what seemed forever went by before someone spoke.

"Are you friends with Karin?" Richard asked again trying to break the ice.

I nodded.

"Do you have any other friends?"

I shook my head slightly.

"Are you new here at Jump High?"

I nodded.

"What's your name?"

I pulled out my student ID that I had mailed to me before school started and handed it to him with out looking at Richard.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Richard looked at the plastic card.

I sighed in frustration and glared at him. "What do you want me to say?" I growled.

"**_Tell_** me your name…" He waited for me to respond.

"Rachelle Roth." I spoke in my monotone voice.

"Now shake my hand…" I reluctantly shook his hand. "And then I say…Hello, my name is Richard Grayson."

I sneered and went back to looking out the window. I pulled the towel tighter around me as I felt a draft of cold air hit me.

"Here…" Richard leaned over me and closed the window that was slightly open letting cold air leak through it.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

"You're welcome." Richard smiled this cheesy smile a million miles wide and took out his headphones and iPod. He zoned out while lip syncing to some song and bobbing his head back and forth. I took one look at the pathetic sight of the "bee-bopping" teen and rolled my eyes. Obviously he had noticed or he wouldn't have said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want to listen too?"

"No." I said in an annoyed tone.

"But of course you do!" he said taking one ear piece out with one hand and with the other pushing some of my hair back from my ear and placing the earphone in it. I blushed ever so slightly as his hand brushed my cheek. I know! **_ME_** blushing! What a joke.

I didn't pay much attention to the first song. All I knew was that it was about something about someone. But the next song I recognized. It was a song my sister and I always listened to. It was…I couldn't remember the name. I just listened to the song looking out the window thinking of the time Sarah and I did karaoke to this song jumping on my bed. I missed hearing her laugh. I fought back the tears and focused on the song.

When it ended I turned to Richard who was now asleep.

"So much for asking him the title…" I mumbled setting the earpiece down beside him and walking back to my original seat. Karin was leaning on the window sleeping like most of the passengers. I brought my knees up to my head and clung to the towel wrapped around me thinking of Sarah while I drifted into a gentle slumber.

I blinked twice and opened my eyes to see Karin looking at me strangely.

"What?" I asked.

"You were talking in your sleep…" She explained.

'_Oh shit! Please say I didn't say anything about being and angel!'_

"And…"I spoke a little uneasy.

"You were saying 'Sarah' a lot."

"Oh, well that's weird. I don't even know anybody named Sarah." I lied. I didn't exactly feel like bringing up who Sarah was and my whole family history right that moment.

I looked around and noticed the bus was parked in the school parking lot and all of the students, except Karin and me, were off of it.

"Let's head off." I suggested. We exited the bus and started to walk towards the school.

I still head the towel wrapped around me when Richards snuck up on me and grabbed a piece of the towel and gently pulled causing me to spin around a couple of times, unraveling. I looked at him with annoyance.

"Cute, Grayson." I sneered.

"Hey its my towel!" He had that same cheesy grin plastered on his place.

I growled and turned around and headed into the school.

"You know his name?" Karin asked a little interested.

"Well, yeah. Richard Grayson." I said walking through the school halls.

We walked into our classroom and sat at an empty desk. A few minutes later the class was settled in and Mr. Michael was ready to start.

"Now, we are going to be assigned partners…" He picked up what looked to be a list. "Ok, so Nikki T. and Jenny H. will be partners."

"Oh please don't be someone dumb." I mumbled my plea to nobody in particular.

"Richard G. and…"

"Please not me…not me." I whispered to myself.

"…Ryan R." Mr. Michael finished.

I gave a slight grin at my luck. And looked over at him.

"Shelly H. and…"

I was still grinning when I heard it…

"…Rachelle R."

I immediately stopped grinning and turned to look at Shelly, my face had disgust written all over it. Shelly gagged and looked at her friend saying, "Eww, gross. Rachelle R. Is that that girl on the bus?" She asked with a horrified look on her face.

"Yeah, Rachelle." The girl replied.

I looked at Karin who was looking at me with a mix of pity and laughter. In other words, I could tell she felt sorry for and at the same time was going to burst out laughing at my misfortune.

"It's not funny!" I bellowed.

"I bet you wished you were partners with that Richard." She had obviously overheard my pleas.

I just looked at her. She seemed to get the point and looked the other way.

I just sat my chair with my head to my desk, semi-pouting. At least I was out of the lake and I got to go to work that day. Mr. Michael finished his list and dismissed us. I grabbed my backpack and waited for Karin at the door. We walked to work together. She seemed to have forgotten what happened at the lake so I didn't bring it up to remind her.

We entered the café and walked through the kitchen and into he back room to get aprons and change into my uniform, which was a black blouse with a black skirt and black fish net leggings.

"Here." Karin handed me my nametag.

It was black and had Rachelle Roth stenciled in white into the surface. I pinned it to my shirt.

"You can put your backpack in one of these cubbies." Karin said pointing to the cubbies. I stuffed my backpack in it. Then we left the back room and into the kitchen where Karin introduced me to other employees. Then we walked to the counter and she introduced me to the cashier and some of the servers. She taught me how to organize the bookshelves, and fix the microphone and lights. She also taught me how to use the cash register. After that I was pretty much ready to serve the customers and earn my money.

"Thanks Karin." I said.

Karin nodded with a smile in response. I was going to enjoy serving people and reading the books when there was slow business and listen to different people read their poetry.

"I can take over." I offered the cashier. He agreed and stepped aside. I waited for a customer to be ready. A girl stepped up to the cash register.

"What would you like?" I asked with my ridged voice.

"One black coffee and a croissant." She replied.

"That will be…" I rang it up. "…$5.50." I said.

The woman stepped aside. I gave the order of black coffee to the guy working the coffee machine and picked up the croissant with the tongs and placing it on a plate. I brought the plate with the crescent shaped pastry on it to the woman who ordered it.

"Your coffee will be ready soon." I informed her. I walked back behind the counter. As soon as the coffee was ready, I served it to her too. The business was going slower, so I sat in a chair in the corner and read a book from the bookshelf.

"You know, you can read poetry onstage." Karin said sitting next to me in a beanbag.

"I don't have any poetry." I explained not even bothering to look up.

"I saw you writing a poem in class this morning. At least that's what you said you were writing."

I thought back and remembered she was right.

"Why would I read my poetry out loud?" I asked.

"Because there's not that many people here, so its less embarrassing. This is when I usually read my poetry."

"You do poetry?" I asked surprised.

"Not much, and it's not that good…" Karin said laying back into the bag.

"Oh. Well I haven't ever read my poetry to anyone." _'Except Sarah…'_

"Please! Just this once!" Karin had a pathetic impression of a puppy dog.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes at her puppy dogface and put the book away and heading to my backpack. I reached into my bag and pulled out my notebook that I had written the poem in. I walked back out and onto the stage. I sat in the stool and brought the microphone closer to me. Someone pointed the spotlight right on me. There were only about five to eight people in the audience plus the employees listening. I took a deep breath and thought of Sarah. I began…

_I am a Dark Angel filled with dread _

_I am a Dark angel wishing I were dead _

_I am a White Angel filled with lost hope _

_I am a White Angel trying to cope _

_I am a Grey Angel, my wings tattered and torn _

_I am a Grey Angel, my soul weathered and worn _

I looked up at the last word. The spotlight turned off and I let my eyes adjust has I stepped off the stage. I walked back to where Karin was still in the beanbag.

"Oh my god! That's what you where writing?" Karin asked with the biggest smile on her face.

"Yeah, poetry. Like I told you…" I answered sitting down.

"That was amazing!" She laughed.

Unexpectedly, Someone banged on the window beside us causing Karin and me to shriek. I looked at the culprit. It was none other than Grayson. Rachel gave the laughing Richard a dirty face and flipped him off.

"Asshole." Karin mumbled.

He came around to the door and walked through it still laughing. I got up and started walking to the kitchen. As I passed him he grabbed me arm.

"Com'n Roth. That was pretty damn funny!" He stifled another laugh.

"I'm not laughing. Am I, Grayson?" I had an mix of anger frustration and annoyance in my tone.

He was still holding my arm. I fixed my eyes on his and narrowed my eyes. Then I looked at his hand around my arm and back at him. He smirked this cocky smirk.

"You want me to stop? All you have to do is **_say_** so." He teased. "That means you have to open that mouth of yours and speak."

"Let go." I growled in a low voice staring daggers at Richard. He let go.

"So anyway, I saw you two sitting here bored, so I decided to liven up your day with a little scare." He explained following me around the room as I cleaned up people's dishes they had left. I ignored him. I carried the dirty dishes to the rack where we put them and from there someone at the end of the day cleans them. He was still following me.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm trying to avoid you. Leave me alone." I demanded.

"But you so fun to annoy!" Richard stuck his hands in his pocket.

I turned back to the bookshelves and started to reorganize it.

"And besides, your cute when your mad!" He kept pushing.

I slowly turned on my heel and looked at him with hate.

"I'm not cut when I'm mad." I bellowed through clenched teeth.

"See?" He laughed.

I shook my head and put the last book in its place and picked up the book was reading before and sat down in a chair. I picked up where I left off and began to read.

Richard sat down in the chair next to me and started at me. I knew he was trying to get to me, so I tried to ignore his glare. But I couldn't concentrate on the book with him staring at me. I slammed the book shut and looked up at Richard. He knew it'd get to me, and he was clearly he was happy with his success.

"What do you want, Grayson?" I asked trying to calm down.

"What do I want…let me think about it…" He pretended to ponder the thought.

"Good, while you think about it, go for a long walk off a short dock." I retorted.

"I already did that with you." He smiled at his wittiness.

I rolled my eyes lying down in the chair with my head over one armrest and my legs hanging off the other armrest. _'He'll go away, if you ignore him…' _I tried to reassure myself. I had my eyes closed and breathing in and out slowly. I felt someone's breath on my face. I opened one eye to see Grayson's face over mine. He was staring at me with that goddamn smirk on his face.

I grunted and sat up turning to give him yet another glare.

"What do I have to do to get you out of my face?" I asked with a plea in my voice.

"Nothing. I won't get out of your face. It's to much fun."


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 5

It had been an hour since Richard scared Karin and me and he still was buzzing around the café. Karin had left about forty-five minutes ago a long with all the employees and even the boss who trusted me enough to clean up and lock the café. I was working over time so I could buy some food for Karin tomorrow so she doesn't starve. Richard was now tapering with the microphone. He was tapping it and saying "Testing, testing, 1…2…3."

I walked back behind the stage and unplugged the microphone.

"Hey!" Richard shrieked as he saw me came back from behind the stage.

"Grayson, the café is closing, and I need to clean it up. Stop being a child!" I yelled, wiping of the tables with a damp cloth. "Why don't you go home? It's 7:30!"

"Nice try, but I'm not leaving. I live by myself in an apartment." He explained. "So there's no parent to worry about me."

"Did they make you move out because you were so annoying?" I asked in a rhetorical way.

"No…" Richard lay down on his back with his arms behind his head. "I wanted to be by myself and since my father…well step father, Bruce Wayne, is a millionaire, I have enough money to support myself.

I went into the kitchen to empty the dishes from the dish rack into the dishwasher. And to my surprise, Richard didn't follow me. He was still laying on the stage. I started putting the dishes in the dishwashers (We had two to keep up with all the dirty dishes.).

"Crap!" I screamed as a plate slipped out of my hands and shattered on the floor.

"What? Are you okay?" Came Grayson's voice from the other room. He ran in to see me kneeled down picking up pieces of the plate. "Let me help you." He offered bending down picking up shards of the plate.

"Ouch." I groaned as I pulled my hand away from where I laid it. There was a sliver of the glass stuck in it.

Richard looked up as soon as I uttered the pain filled word and came over to where I was kneeled. He took my hand and I pulled it away from him.

"Don't touch it!" I demanded.

"I won't, just let me see how bad it is." He said with his hand open. When I didn't give him my hand, he gently grabbed my hand. I started to pull it back but he took his other hand and held my wrist so I couldn't escape his grip.

"Grayson…" I began, my voice thick with warning.

"Relax, Roth. I'm only trying to help." He examined my finger and then looked at me. "I can take it out. That is only if you let me."

"Fine. Just get it over with." I sighed in defeat.

Richard fairly touched my hand. It kind of tickled so I made the mistake of slightly laughing.

"Did that tickle?" He asked doing the same thing again. He was grinning ear to ear.

I laughed a little harder and then abruptly stopped realizing I was laughing at Grayson, the annoying guy. I blushed, but looked away so he couldn't tell. He went back to my finger.

"This might hurt just a little…but…" he trailed off as he yanked the sliver of glass out of my hand.

I cringed and pulled my hand back. I looked at my hand. There was a little blood but the splinter was out!

"Th-thanks." I stammered getting up to get the broom. He stood up and started to put he rest of the dishes in the dishwasher.

"You're welcome. Anytime."

We did the chores quietly for a few minutes. I swept up the remaining shards of the plate, and he put the dishes in the dishwashers.

"So do you like working here?" Richard asked once again trying to break the ice.

"I just started today. But other than the fact that there was this guy who wouldn't leave me alone, it was fine." I replied throwing the last of the plate away and putting the broom back.

"Well, if this guy wasn't here bugging you the whole time, then maybe you might be dying from a fatal glass wound wishing he were still there to save you." He had his cocky grin on his face has he finished up with the dishes.

"I doubt I would be dying, but I would be pretty lonely…" I stopped. _'What the hell did I just say? Oh shit! That just slipped out…'_

"Rachelle Roth, you're blushing." Richard teased walking closer to me.

That only made me blush harder. _' Now what?' _I started to panic.

"Rachelle Roth would be lonely with out the annoyance of Richard Grayson?" He kept teasing.

"I got to go!" I rushed into the back room and threw my apron on the hook and grabbed my backpack. I ran for the door leading out into the night. Richard followed. I shut the door and locked it. I started walking fast down the street.

"Wait! Let me walk you home!" He cried running to catch up with me. I didn't stop. He walked beside me, a couple of times looking down at me.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Fine, except I just totally humiliated myself." I responded walking faster.

"It was only me." He matched my pace.

"And I only met you today…" I said walking just a tad faster.

He still caught up to me.

"But you like me." He smirked looking down at me.

"What? No!" I yelled.

"But you said that you'd miss me if I wasn't with you…" He said slipping in front of me to slow me down. I stopped and went around him.

"I was just blabbing. I didn't mean it." I protested.

"Prove it." Richard dared, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards him.

"I don't need to prove anything." I said looking at his eyes.

"Then you admit, you like me." He let go and started walking a head. I run to catch up.

"I didn't **_admit_** anything." I turned to walk up the steps to the hotel.

"You live here?" Richard looked at the building.

"It's all I can afford." I explained.

He opened the double doors for me. I stepped inside.

"Good night, Rachelle." He called from the doorway. I turned and waved. Richard grinned and walked back down the steps.

I pressed the up button to the elevator. I waited until the elevator blinked and opened its doors. I rode it to my floor and got off. I was thinking about the events of the night in the elevator. _'I don't like him…'_ I opened my door and stepped inside, turning on the light. I set my backpack down and my keys on the table. I set the teakettle on the stove and turned to the refrigerator to grab a snack. I sat at the table and ate my apple and cheese. Then I changed into my pajamas and prepared my tea. _' He is soooo annoying! He pushed me into a lake, he scared the shit out of me, he followed me everywhere, and… he took out the sliver of glass, he has the perfect grin, he is handsome, he said good night to me, and he makes me laugh…No, no, no! This is wrong! I just met him and he's Richard! I am an angel…a-a half Dark Angel! What do I do?' _ I was gulping down my tea. I wasn't sipping it like you should to calm yourself down. I practically chugged the last half of my tea and put the mug in the sink. I got ready for bed and set my alarm clock.

That night, I fell asleep fretting that I was actually attracted to Grayson.

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and turned off the alarm clock. I started off my morning ritual by turning on the hot water for my daily herbal tea. An hour later I had showered, packed, had breakfast, and dressed in my uniform and was ready for school. I locked the door behind me and headed out for school.

I made it to the school grounds within thirty-five minutes. My head was down and I clung to my books as I walked through the doors, entering the school halls of mass chaos. Somewhere in the crowd, Karin found me.

"Morning, Rachelle." She said a little more cheerful than usual.

"Why are you so peachy?" I asked opening my locker.

"I felt like today was going to be a good day." She explained leaning against the locker next to mine.

I dumped all my school stuff into the locker. I shut the locker looking at Karin.

"Feelings can be deceiving." I warned walking through the crowd towards first class.

"Well look who's not peachy this morning." Karin snickered.

I held the door open for her and we walked to our assigned desks. I placed my books next to where Shelly was sitting and flirting with some helpless soul. Then I walked back to where Karin was seated.

"What'd you do after you got off work?" I asked her.

"I went back home and made my dad dinner." She said in a 'fatter-of-fact' tone.

"Karin. Did **_you_** have dinner?" I questioned looking worried.

"Well, n-no…" She looked away.

"Are you hungry now?"

She only looked at me with sorrow filled eyes.

"Let's get ready to start." Announced Mr. Michael. He placed his brief case on his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. "We are having a pop quiz today on what we observed yesterday. You may work with your partner."

I looked at Shelly who was examining her fingernails. I sighed realizing she was not going to be any source of help. The teacher passed out the quizzes to each pair.

"You will sharing a paper with your partner." He explained as he handed the last paper out. "And I need to go to the office real quick, so I'm leaving you guys alone. Can you handle it?" He asked. The class responded with a 'Yes'.

"Are you going to help me?" I asked Shelly who had moved on to looking at her hair to make sure there were no split ends.

"I don't want to." She whined.

"That's only because you don't know anything on here." I pointed to the piece of paper.

"Well why should I know anything on there. I paid no attention yesterday." Shelly had this spoiled brat tone.

"You paid no attention because you were to busy being a bitch and getting guys to worship you." I was getting really pissed really fast.

"Why don't you just crawl back to where you came from and make someone else's day a hellhole?" She cracked back.

I ignored her response and read the first question out loud.

"What was one new species that you learned about?"

"It was slimy, mean, and was named Rachelle R." Shelly laughed. "And not to mention it had bad taste in friends. It hangs out with an anorexic."

That was it. I couldn't take her trash talking my friends and me. I kicked the leg of her stool causing her to fall backwards onto the ground. The class shot their heads over at us.

"You little hoe!" Shelly screamed kicking my stool's leg. I fell to the cold tile floor with a thump. Some kids got out of their seats to get a better look at the fight.

"Oops…my foot slipped." Shelly mocked.

I growled and stood up. I looked at her and snorted.

"Pathetic…" I mumbled under my breath.

Shelly got up.

"What's the matter? Afraid that I might hurt your sorry ass?"

"I'm not sorry." I gave a slight evil grin as I looked at Richard. He was smiling at me. Shelly turned to the person I was looking at. Richard looked back at her and grinned his cocky grin. A few kids constrained their laughs. That's when Shelly noticed the inkbottle that was opened on Richards's desk. She slowly turned around and cried out when she realized when I had pushed her down, she had fallen into Richards ink puddle. Her face became the definition of horror has she ran out of the classroom. As she ran you could see the huge ink blob on her skirt.

"That look was so priceless!" Richard howled in laughter.

I grinned ever so slightly and picked up my stool. Richard lifted the other stool off the ground and smiled.

"Thanks." I bluntly stated with no emotion in my voice.

"I heard you guys bickering so when I saw you lift your foot I spilled the ink down right before she hit the ground! It was awesome!" He still looked cocky.

"Since when did people still use ink from a bottle?" I asked.

"There is such a thing called ink art. Bruce makes me take it because he says it's an elegant art." Richard explained. I stepped off the stool and went over to the sink. I grabbed a few paper towels and brought it back to the ink buddle. It was mostly gone because Shelly had sponged it up so I just had to add some water and clean it up.

I sat back down in my seat and looked at the paper.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Richard asked scooting into Shelly's old stool.

"What about your partner?" I didn't even lift my head up.

"He'll be fine, considering he's not at school right now." He beamed.

I looked over at Richard's desk and sure enough there was no one there.

"Fine, if you don't bug me." I said pushing the paper in between us.

"Promise." Grayson took the paper and started to fill out the first question.

Thankfully, the class had gathered itself together by the time Mr. Michael reentered the room.

"Sorry, I was stuck helping fix the microwave." The teacher defended himself.

By that time, we had finished our test. At least Richard and I did. We were just sitting there. He pulled out a piece of binder paper. He scribbled something on it and slid it over to me. It read…

_So, you know how you admitted that you'd be lonely without me?_

As soon as I read his sentence I glared at him.

_I didn't admit anything, Grayson! _

I slid it back to him. A few seconds later…

_Yes you did, but anyway…I didn't want you to be lonely on the 27th…are you available? _

I took one look at the paper and just about died. _'Is he asking me out?' _

_Why? What's so special about the 27th? _

He replied…

_You're kidding right? It's the prom… _


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 6

I was showing Karin the note while we were walking to lunch.

"Richard gave you this?" She asked a little shocked as she read the note.

"Yeah and I don't know what to say." After he asked me out to the prom I had written back 'I'm not what you'd call a prom type of girl.' He just replied by saying, 'Just think about it…' So now here I am thinking about it.

We walked into the cafeteria. Karin went straight to an open table. I went after her.

"What are you doing?" I asked her. She looked at me with a questioning look.

"Well, I'm saving a table." Karin said raising an eyebrow.

"Why don't you get something to eat?" I handed her some money. She looked so shocked, and a bit confused.

"W-what? Are you serious? You'd buy me lunch?" She looked so happy. There was this sparkle in her eye that just…well, sparkled.

"Wouldn't want you to starve." I said quietly.

She jumped up and grabbed the money. Karin raced for the line to get the food. I felt good inside. A feeling I haven't had in a VERY long time.

"Today is pizza." I informed her getting in line behind Karin.

"Thank you, Rachelle! I haven't had…" She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Anything to eat this week except an apple I stole from the kitchen. Well, two apples."

"Anytime!" I said watching Karin practically jump up and down.

We picked up our slices of pizza and went back to our seats. Karin immediately started to eat her pizza. I just watched.

"Want some water?" I asked her, scooting my seat out and standing up.

"Sure." She said with a stuffed mouth.

I walked to the soda machine and placed the dollar bill in the money slot. I pressed the water button and bottled water came out. I paid for another and waited for the second to drop into the 'pick-up bucket'. I turned around and bumped into something hard. I looked up and found out it was none other than…well do I have to tell.

"Hello Richard." I mumbled and tried to walk passed him.

"Wait." He put his arm out to catch me before I left. "Did you think about it?"

"You already annoy me enough. Do you have to annoy me about this?" I asked with a slight pout in my voice.

"Have you?"

"Yes, but I still need more time." I pushed pass him and walked back to Karin and handed her a bottled water. She was eating the crust of the pizza.

"Here you are Karin. One bottled water." Karin unscrewed the top and started drinking some of it.

"You can have mine." I offered pushing my pizza slice to Karin. She accepted and took it.

"Mined if I sit here ladies?" Came Richard's voice from behind me.

Karin shook her head. I pulled out a chair for him.

"Thank you." He sat down placing his lunch in front of him.

I sipped at my water.

"What were you guys talking about?" Richard asked looking at Karin who was again stuffing her face and then at me. I shrugged.

"Well, that was pretty funny this morning in science when Karin sat in ink." He smiled at me and winked.

"Yeah." I was blushing so I hid behind my hair. "That was funny."

Richard looked over at Shelly. She was sitting at a table with her girl friends and some guys.

"She is a bitch." He said to nobody really.

"That would be why I kicked her stool." I said coldly.

"And that would be why I poured the ink onto the floor." He retorted.

"Whatever."

"How's your finger?" Richard asked trying desperately to start a conversation.

"It's fine. I just put a band aid on it." I showed him my hand; he delicately placed his hand under mine. My heart started to pound, but not in a scared way. My heart was pounding because…to be honest, I wasn't sure. My hand started to tingle as he rubbed his thumb in small circles on my hand. I looked up at him with shy eyes. Richard looked at me and smiled. And Karin looked at the both of us and burst out laughing. I shot a death glare towards Karin who instantly shut up.

"What is your problem?" I asked Karin.

"It was a cheesy moment…" She trailed off as she saw my face, which screamed 'Shut the hell up!'

The bell rang indicating that it was time for lunch to end. The rest of the school day consist of being bored, trying to stop myself from killing the math teacher who was blabbing on about nothing, trying to ignore Shelly's dirty looks, giving Shelly dirty looks, and trying to avoid Richard Grayson for fear I was falling for him.

By the end of the day I was pretty tired, because I hadn't gotten too much sleep the other night. I was up hating myself for betraying myself by starting to fall for Richard. I kept telling myself I'd get over him, but it was a waste of my breath because well look what happened today.

I grabbed some books out of my locker and stuffed it into my backpack. Karin met up with me outside of the school building.

"Ready for work?" Karin asked as we walked across the street.

"Sure." I shrugged.

We walked to the café talking about that day. We walked into Dark Days Café and got ready for work.

The workday started off with a few dark poets who wanted to share their poetry, and then it was pretty normal from there on. I actually, god forbid I actually felt this way, but I really **_did_** miss his annoying company.

Karin left at 5:30 p.m. And now it was 7:00p.m. _'Only one hour until closing…'_ I was waiting for a costumer's order, practically asleep.

"I will get just a coffee." The man said handing me a ten-dollar bill. I gave the order to the other employee and gave the man his change. He sat at a near by table. A few seconds later, his order was up and I brought him his order. I walked over to the bookshelves and grabbed a random book, sitting down and opening it to the first page.

I got so sucked into the book that I didn't realize there were no more costumers and nobody was there except two other employees.

"We're going to head home." One employee said walking the other person out.

Well, now there was only me. I put the book away and started wiping down the tables. I went behind the stage to shut down the spotlight and unplug the microphone.

When I came out from behind the curtain, I saw someone rolling the dish rack into the kitchen.

"Hello? Who is that?" I ran into the kitchen. "What do you think you're…" I stopped when I saw Richard look up from putting a plate into the dishwasher.

"Miss me?"

I gave a grin and started helping him.

"Why'd you come here?" I asked him.

"I thought you'd be here needing help close this place down for the night." He explained.

"Oh. Thanks, I guess…"

I was so tired I could just let him finish everything. No, that'd be mean and sounded more like Shelly.

"You like a zombie." Richard said with concern in his voice. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired." I said closing my eyes.

I put a glass in the dishwasher and practically dropped it. Thank god for Richard because he caught it before it hit the ground.

"Maybe, you should go sit down for a while." I said placing the glass in the dishwasher and then helping me to a chair in the employees' room. He then went back to emptying the dish rack.

I didn't know how long I sat there drifting in and out of sleep, but after 'x' amount of time, Richard came into the employees' room.

"Are you asleep?" He asked in a whisper.

"No. Not quite." I moaned.

He walked over to the cubbies.

"This your backpack?" He asked pointing to my bag.

"It is the only one there, is it not?" I replied.

I heard him picking it up and the next thing I knew, he picked **_me_** up. He just softly lifted me off my chair in bridal position and walked out of the café with my backpack on one shoulder.

The last thing I remember was the cold air against my skin and the warmth of Richards's arms around me. I rested my head against his chest, and that's all I could remember before drifting into blackness.

I know I don't usually do this A/N thing but…A/N sorry this was such a short chapter, but I'm leaving tomorrow and won't return until two weeks are up. Thank you to all who are reading this story!


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 7

I woke up in my bed. I sat up instantly remembering that Richard had carried me home. '_How'd I get in my bed?' _ I stood up and stumbled towards the lamp. I found the switch and turned the light on. I blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. I slowly realized that I wasn't in my hotel room but a rather large bedroom that had a canopy over the bed, a Persian rug covering the wooden floors, paintings of still lives and portraits of unknown people. I started to panic. I ran for the door and yanked it open; I was relived to find the door wasn't locked. I tumbled into the hallway outside of the bedroom.

The hallway was dark, but was some what lit up from the windows that were about every seven feet apart. They shed little light from the outside, but apparently there was enough moon light outside to allow me to see in front of me. I tiptoed down the wooden floor, watching everything around me. I kept very quiet…that is until I heard a creak in the wood floor. I stopped; my heart was pounding because I could hear breathing right behind me. I took another step forward and heard footsteps behind me. I turned around. I was breathing hard, my palms were sweaty and I couldn't breath. Then I heard someone whispering my name. I felt like I was going to suffocate from fright. I listened for anyone. And then I heard my name being whispered.

"W-who are y-you…?" I stammered in a small voice.

"Behind you…" I low voice said. My heart stopped as I felt breathe on my back. I stopped breathing and slowly turned around, not sure I really wanted to know who or what was behind me.

"Hello." Bellowed the shadowed figure.

I looked up and screamed as I saw George, looking menacing as ever holding my sister's dead bloody body.

I sat up in my bed, tears streaming down my face. I grabbed a pillow and covered my face in it and cried. I rocked back and forth telling myself it wasn't true. But Sarah was dead, and George did kill her. He could be here…I heard a door open and someone turn on a light.

"Are you okay Rachelle? I heard you scream." I looked up. Richard was sitting on my bed. I looked around me and realized I was in the same in as my nightmare. I wiped my eyes and looked at Richard, his face was filled with concern. I pushed the covers off of me and stood up. I was still wearing my clothes that I wore to work.

"Where am I?" I asked still a little shaken up.

"My house, well, my step father's house, Bruce Wayne."

"Why?" I asked sitting back down hugging the pillow I was crying into earlier.

Richard scooted closer.

"Well, you fell asleep and I didn't want to wake you up and I thought I knew the way to your hotel room, but then I got lost and ended up here. I was closer to here then my place…and this is nicer than my house…" He got to his feet and walked slowly to the door. He looked back before walking out.

"It's 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday. So if you want to sleep here you can, or I can drive you home." He was waiting for a reply.

"Um…" I looked around the room. It was nice, the bed was comfy and I was with Richard. '_Shit! Don't think that!'_ I looked back at him. My cheeks still a little red and my eyes watery.

"I'll stay here, if it's not to much trouble." I answered looking at Richard who was smiling.

"No trouble. Just go back to sleep. And if you get uncomfortable, then come wake me up. I'm the room four doors down, and if you get hungry the kitchen is down stairs on the right."

"Thank you, Grayson." I said pulling the covers back over me and closing my eyes. I heard Richard close the door. I slowly drifted off into slumber.

The sun poured through my window. I opened one eye then the other. I turned on my side. I was facing the window. There was a tree outside. Its leaves shook in the soft breeze. It looked warm outside and a bird was chirping. It was actually getting a little annoying. I got out from under the covers and stretched. Then I walked to the door and opened it. I walked down the hall until I saw a staircase leading down. I descended them ending up on the bottom floor of the mansion. I remembered Richard telling me the kitchen was on the right so I took a right and saw the kitchen. Someone was cooking. I could smell eggs and toast. I kept walking until I could see into the kitchen. A man was checking the toast. He looked a little bit over than 50.

"Hello…" I whispered in a hoarse voice.

The man turned around and looked at me.

"Good morning Ms." He said turning back to the toast. "Mr. Grayson said he brought home a friend. My name is I'm Alfred, may I help you?"

"Can you tell me where Richard is?" I asked.

"He is in the library, Ms." Alfred answered as he placed the sunny-side up eggs on the toast, which was laid out on a plate. "Will you please tell him that his breakfast is ready?"

"Sure. Can you tell me where the library is?"

"Down the hall, take a left and it's the second door on the left." He directed.

I walked down the hallway until there was another hallway leading to the left. I followed it down until I came to big double doors. I opened one just a little and peered inside. It was the library, because there were bookshelves with tons and tons of books. There was a table with a couple of books that were open.

"Richard?" I called out.

I could hear rustling then Richard's face appeared around one of the bookshelves.

"Yeah." He said walking towards me. "Did you have a good sleep?"

"For the most part…"

"Yeah, I kind of figured that your scream was out of fear of a bad dream."

"Well, you're right, but I'm not telling you about it so don't ask." I sat down at one of the chairs at the table.

"Wasn't planning on asking." He grinned and went back to looking for a book.

I pulled one of the open books towards me. I looked at the cover. It was an Edgar Allen Poe book.

"You like Edgar Allen Poe?" I asked skimming the page it was open to.

"Well, I don't really read much of his stuff, but I remembered seeing you in the café reading one of his books so I thought that you liked him. I was looking in here to find any books you might want to read.

"Thanks." I bluntly replied looking down at the book.

"Do you want any breakfast?" Richard asked standing beside me looking down.

"Well, Alfred wanted me to tell you that your breakfast is ready." I told him.

"Oh, so you've met the butler?"

"Yeah, he was in the kitchen so I asked him where I could find you." I looked up at Richard. He smiled that cocky grin.

"So you were worried about me? Or could you not let another second go by without me by your side?" He chuckled.

"Just go eat your breakfast, Grayson!" I growled.

He was still smiling when he opened the double doors for me. I ignored him when he bowed and said "This way, my lady."

The dinning room was huge, with a fireplace and long table. There was also this extremely big window that took up pretty much the entire sidewall. It was overlooking the garden, well, **_part_** of the garden.

"Would you like me to make you anything, ma'am?" Alfred asked, pulling out Richard's chair for him.

"Just some herbal tea." I answered.

"Yes ma'am." He left the room to go make my request.

I walked over to the window and looked out at the willow tree at the far right of the garden. Richard was eating his eggs and toast; I could hear the fork and knife clang against the plate. The willow tree's long branches were swaying in the breeze, which was creating a water affect that actually looked pretty cool.

"So what do you want to do today?" Richard asked walking up to me, and stopping beside me.

"Don't know don't care."

"Do you want to go home? Or do you want stay here? Or do you want to go outside somewhere?"

'_Well, I don't really want to go back to the hotel…'_

"You choose." I said in my monotone voice.

"How about we go somewhere." He suggested.

"Where?"

He thought for a moment.

"I know! Come on, get ready to leave." Richard said walking to other side of the room where the door was.

"But I haven't had my tea yet!" I yelled. "And where are we going?"

"It's a surprise!" I heard Richard yell back.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 8

I was in the car with Richard. I was staring out the passenger's window at the traffic.

"Would you just tell me where we're going?" I sounded frustrated.

"Calm down, I am not telling you anything." He was chuckling an evil chuckle that made me want to slap him across the face.

I sighed in annoyance and crossed my arms. It was a nice day. Richard dropped me off at my hotel room so I could change.

"So if that was your step father's mansion…then where was he?" I asked a little skeptical.

"He was working in his office. He hardly comes out of it." He explained to me.

I was a little annoyed not knowing where we were going, so I tried to turn on the radio to ease my anxiety. I surfed the stations until I found I song I didn't know but I liked the beat. I listened closely to the lyrics. It reminded me of an old poem I had written…

You know she's there… 

_You know but don't really care… _

_You see her in the school halls… _

_You hear her laughing with her friends… _

_But what you don't know, see, or hear is… _

_Every night she cries herself to sleep… _

I had written that late one night when I was thinking how I was treated differently because I was different. I know, it's not like it cam to me as a surprise that people were treating me differently because that's what people do. Angels aren't that much different than human except our culture and we have wings. I sometimes feel stupid because of the way I acted and cried night after night because of the way others acted towards me…it's just, I had this sliver of hope. After that, I now look at hope as a curse…it's what keeps you going and gets your hope up and then when it all goes wrong, you die inside. Hope is probably the reason why I'm grim and not so optimistic.

"We're almost there." Richard announced.

I looked out the window. We were on a narrow road. There were a lot of trees, tall trees. I could see sunlight trying to find a way through the trees' leaves and branches.

"Since we are almost there, tell me where we are going?" I pushed.

"Nope."

I snorted. I tilted my head back and closed me eyes.

My life as an angel was crap. The only time anyone but my sister and mother paid any attention to me was when I met George. He had fallen while playing tag and busted his lip and screwed up his leg. I had felt bad for an add reason and I had used my healing ability to fix it all up. And then we became friends, and then in high school…girlfriend and boyfriend. Actually, there were more then Sarah, Mom, and George who paid attention to me. There were the monks. They taught me how to meditate, or control my feelings. They taught us to ignore those who hated me, which was everyone. They were our teachers up until 8th grade. Then we went to high school. From half of 5th grade to 8th grade, they taught us self-defense and how to use our powers. I enjoyed going to the temple with Sarah. The temple gave me a sense of peace, and sanctuary.

"Okay, we're here." Richard proclaimed.

"Finally!" I groaned. I sat up and looked out at the scenery.

"You took me to a beach?" I asked rather shocked.

"You don't want to be here?" He sounded a little offended.

"No, no! Not at all!" I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

He parked the car. Richard got out and waited for me to exit before looking the car.

"I use to come here when I was growing up and angry about some of my issues…" Richard was walking beside me.

"Issue?" I questioned as we made our way to the sand.

"Yeah…bad memories."

We kept walking towards the shore. The sound of the waves crashing was calming.

"I wouldn't want you to go back to that particular moment that gives you bad memories…" I wasn't being sarcastic. I meant it; I know how it feels to remember a bad memory. I looked up at Richard. He had a look of thanks and understanding.

We reached the water's edge. I stopped and looked out over the ocean. I could feel the ocean's spray against my face. My hair whipped about. I brushed it away from my eyes. I looked up. Richard was staring at me.

"What? Why are you staring at me?" I inquire.

"What…uh…er…" He was looking a bit sheepish.

I frowned.

"Whatever. So why did you like to come here? To the beach?" I asked sitting down on the damp sand. Richard followed my move and sat down with his legs out and leaning back on his elbow.

"I don't know, I never was a big fan of the library, there were to many people at the park, and I never really had friends to go to their houses…" He explained.

"Isn't it a long ride for you to go every time you got…mad?"

"Well, I would ride my bike here and then camp out here for a night, and by then, Bruce would have found me…I skipped school a lot and ran away to spend the day here."

I just listened, relating to the feeling of going someplace safe.

"I know how you feel…" I trailed off.

"Oh shit!" I moaned as I realized that the water had reached us. My jeans up to my knee were soaked. "Damn that's cold!"

"Oh come on! It only water." Richard joked. "Now that we are all ready wet, you want to go for a walk in the water?" He asked. I looked at him as though he was crazy.

"Do you remember the last time **_you_** got me wet?" I queried.

He got up brushing the sand from his butt. He helped me up and started to walk towards the water.

"I'm not going in!" I yelled struggling to stay on my feet as he pulled at me and I pulled away from him.

"Come on! It'll be like last time!" He was laughing.

"Richard! I will kick your ass!" He stopped pulling and let go of my wrist.

"Fine. Don't be fun. I'll go in myself." He laughed as he walked into the water waist deep. His jeans were definitely soaked now if they weren't before! I watched him turn back to look at me, smile, wink, then walk a little more into the salt water. I rolled my eyes and shifted my stance to my right side.

"Sure you don't want to come in?" He yelled back to me.

"Pretty damn sure!" I answered.

He shrugged and dove into the water, a few seconds later he came back up.

"Whooo! That feels good!" He screamed. He turned his body to face me. I could barley hear him because he was so far out when he called to me, "Lat chance to come in!"

"I'm fine right here!" I could see him coming back to shore. I waited there with my hands in my sweater's pouch. He was almost out of the water. His shirt was clinging to his body, showing off his muscles. His ounce spiky black hair was now flattened dew to the water. '_There you go again Rachelle! Stop looking at Richard! Damn you!'_ I looked away and down at my feet.

"Since you're not going in the water and I don't want to drag you in…" He had a mischievous look on is face.

"What are you going to do, Grayson?" I asked a little nervous. I couldn't help but smile just a little because Richard looked funny dripping wet and looking at me with a demon's child face. Wait that's my face…a demon's child. Well, that killed the moment.

"Nothing. I'm not doing anything…" He grinned as he slowly walked towards me. "I just thought since your being a part pooper and not getting in the water, I'd just have to get you wet without bringing you in the water with me." He smiled then shrugged and broke into a run. I turned as fast as I could laughing and running away from him.

"I don't want to become soaked Richard!" I could barley talk because I was laughing to hard. _'Why am I laughing?' _ Richard was right behind me. Despite the fact he was soaking wet, he was running faster than me and soon caught up. He reached out and grabbed my waist, pulling me back. I screamed. But it wasn't a scream of horror, but I screamed because…well…I was having fun? I wasn't sure. _'Why am I all screwed up with my feelings?'_ Richard put his arms around me and squeezed me.

"Yep, now I'm wet!" I laughed.

He was still hugging me and I couldn't break free.

"Well, then in that case…" Richard picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and started to run for the ocean.

"Let me go!" I yelled pounding on his back.

And then I felt us plunge into the cold water. He pulled me back over his shoulder and carried me out into deeper water, and then when we got deep enough, he dove into the water. He didn't let go of me as we went under, but then again, I didn't try to break free. He broke the surface and we both drew in breaths.

"Damn you!" I yelled still in shock from the cold water. I think Richard was trying to say something but he couldn't stop laughing to say whatever it was. "Not again!" I moaned as he let my feet fall but still held me with his other arm. I stared into his eyes. He was smiling from ear to ear and he was still laughing.

"It's not that funny." I said quietly.

"Yeah it is!" He laughed even harder.

I sighed and ducked under his arm that was holding me to him. I started to walk back to shore.

"Where are you going, Rachelle?" Richard asked following me.

"Where does it look like?" I sneered.

He grinned his famous cocky grin and walked beside me all the way to shore where we laid down on the sand.

"I can't believe you did that again! Now I'm cold…again!" I complained.

"Here…" Richard started to take off his shirt.

"No, no! That's okay! I'm fine, no need to do that!" I pleaded.

"What? I was just giving you warmth…again." He chuckled.

"Isn't there some other way?" I asked with a frown.

Richard seemed to ponder the thought then scooted closer to me and wrapped his arms around me. And you know what? I didn't do anything! I ALLOWED HIMTO HOLD ME! _'I cannot believe I'm not smacking him or cussing at him. I cannot believe I'm falling for a guy. I'm falling for Richard Grayson!'_


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 9

I'm not sure how long we were sitting there, but I know that it did feel good to be held. I had my eyes closed and my body resting against Richard's, who was lying down. It was peaceful and I could have sworn I would have fallen asleep, because lying close to Richard and the sound of the waves were practically lolling me to sleep. Damn I wasn't being myself. And that kind of scared me. I didn't like not knowing why acted the way I did, or why I felt the way I did. Even the way I thought freaked me out! Richard Grayson was screwing with my mind, even though he didn't know it. I sat up and walked to towards the sand dunes that outlined the beach. I walked up one hill and stood at the top. It had sparse grass growing from the sand, and it had a great view of the horizon.

"I haven't meditated for a while…" I whispered to myself. I sat cross-legged and placed my hands in my lap and sat up straight. The monks taught us to block out everything when meditating. If you had to have sound, it was to be a constant beat. The beat helped you focus and bring you inside yourself where you could find your inner self and answer question you wanted to know. Questions like… 'What am I feeling?' or ' Where is the emotional pain?' I know it sounds weird, but it helped me control my feelings toward others. I ounce got extremely pissed of at this girl who was calling Sarah and me names. So I almost got in a fistfight with her, but a monk was near by and took me aside to calm down. I meditated for about a half an hour before I got calm enough to go back out to where that bitch was.

I decided to use the sound of the waves' break as my beat. I focus on it, which wasn't hard because there were barely any other sounds beside the waves. There was an occasional bark from someone's dog, or a child's scream, but I blocked it all out by focusing on that one sound.

"So I finally found you?" A deep voice came from within.

I jumped at the sound. I turned. There was nobody there. I went back to meditating.

"You mean you don't know who is talking to you my child?" The voice laughed.

At this moment I knew it was no one physically talking to me. It was my father who had apparently found me and had contacted me. You see meditating can be dangerous because it opens up other "lines". It allows others to talk to me from far away, or the other way around. So now that I was meditating, it opened a line that my father noticed and now he found me.

"Get out of my head!" I whispered. '_Just concentrate on the waves Rachelle.'_ I tried to ignore my father sinister voice.

"Now that I know where you are…what are going to do?" His voice rang throughout my mind. I knew he was only playing with my head. He trying to make me scared…weak…vulnerable. I tried harder to focus on the sound of the waves.

"I'm going to get you my dear child. You can't run or hide." He yelled.

"No, no. He's not there…just ignore him Rachelle…" I whispered to myself trying to reassure he couldn't come get me and hurt me.

"Sarah is dead now is she?" He knew the answer he just wanted to remind me about her death, torment me.

"Shut up…" I growled. My eyes were squeezed shut and my hands were not calmly placed in my lap but balled up into fists.

"So who killed her? Oh yeah, your boyfriend George. Did it hurt to know he betrayed you?" The Dark Angel taunted. A tear was shed from my squeezed eye. It rolled down my face. "Sorry about that honey. Did that bring back a bad memory?"

"Shut up and get out of my mind!" I growled through clenched teeth.

"Do you miss her? Sarah I mean."

"Calm down Rachelle." I encouraged myself.

"I'm going to find you. I will hunt you down and…"

"Rachelle? Are you okay?" I felt a tap on my shoulder and gave a small shriek. My eyes shot open and I turned around.

"Richard, oh thank god it's you!" I cried and jumped up hugging him. I know that I wasn't being myself, yet again, but I was so happy he was there and well…I guess I was scared and him being there…made me feel safe, something I haven't felt since my sister's death.

"Um, yeah…" Richard was shocked and wasn't sure weather or not to hug me back or just stand there. He started to hold me gently and rock me back and forth. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, fine…never mind, just bad thoughts." I sobbed. I clung on to his damp shirt. He started to pat my head.

"Do you want to go home?" He whispered to me.

"We don't have to if you don't want to." I didn't want it to seem I didn't appreciate him taking me to his sanctuary.

"No, no. You look a little shaken up. Let's go home." He said leading me back down the sand dune.

"Wait…I don't want to go home…" It was the truth. At that moment being alone was the last thing I wanted.

"Why?" He asked, his arm still around me as we walked to the car.

"Don't ask why, but I'm scared." I confessed. I've never admitted that I was scared before. I've only admitted my feelings to Sarah.

"I'll stay with you until you feel comfortable." He offered opening the door for me as I sat in the passenger's seat. He took his seat behind the wheel and drove out of the parking lot.

"Thank you for taking me there, it was really fun." I said barley above a whisper. I couldn't help but feel just a little bit guilty because he wanted to surprise me by taking me someplace special to him, and I ruined it.

"So you didn't mind me carrying you under the water with me?" He smirked.

"Whatever." I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of the car passing by the trees.

"You ok?" Richard asked taking a moment to peer over at me.

"Yeah, I'm fine…it was just…" I stopped trying to search my mind for an excuse for the way I was acting. "Never mind." I couldn't find an excuse so I just dropped it.

"So what do you want to do now that its almost 3:00?" He asked.

"If you tired of me, just say so and you can be free once again." I said with a sigh.

"W-what would make you think I'm tired of you?" He asked with a slit hint of offense in is tone. I rolled the window down and hung my hand out of it feeling the wind slip through my fingers.

"I just don't want to waist your day…" I shrugged.

"You are certainly not wasting my day!" He winked at me.

"Yeah, don't do that." I said plainly.

"You mean this…?" He winked again.

I turned away.

"I'm ignoring you now…"

The rest of the drive was silent. I was relaxing…well, it **_looked_** like I was relaxing. But I was really doing the opposite. My incident with my dad really freaked me out. I just sat there wondering how he could find me. Was it possible? What happened if he did find me? I knew that one. He'd bring me back to hell, destroy my White Angel's side and use me to do whatever evil he wants. _'I'm screwed!'_

As soon as we left the dense trees, I could see that while we had been driving the sky had been polluted with storm clouds. Whenever it rained, Sarah and I would go the temple because in the temple's courtyard was a gazebo. It was painted black. We would just lie down on the wooden floor and talk while listening to the drops of water on the gazebo's roof.

"So now that it is raining and there's nothing to do but go to your place and…" Richard grinned an evil grin and looked at me and then arched his brow.

"If you're thinking of what I think you're think, I will stab you through the heart and…" I began ready to slap him silly.

"Whoa, don't kill me! I was talking about watching a movie you sick minded woman!" He laughed. He meant it to sound perverted and now he's making me look like the fool.

"Whatever…jerk."

"So does that sound like a good idea? My idea I mean. Not your nasty minded idea." He joked.

"Yes. **_Your_** idea is fine." I rolled my eyes.

We took a left and pulled into a parking lot. We walked into the movie store.

"So what do you want to see?" Richard asked me as we strolled through the movie shelves.

"A horror movie." I walked straight over to the horror videos and started to browse the store's selection. "Masked Death, Darkness Falls, Black Blood, The Killed, Crisis…" I read the names aloud. Richard was behind me looking at the movies I read aloud and saying yes or no. After much debating, we found our movie, rented it, and returned to the car to go back to my hotel room. I have to admit, it was nice to have him around. Like I said before, he made me feel safe.

As we were driving home, it started to rain. When we got to my hotel, we rushed out of the car with the DVD and ran inside the warm and dry environment.

"We need to take the elevator up three floors." I explained leading Richard through the hotel lobby. I press the up button.

"Ok Rae." He said leaning against the wall.

"Rae?" I asked raising my brow at his pet name for me.

"What? Is that not a good nickname?" He asked looking down at me with a side grin.

"If you call me Rae, then I'll call you…Rich." I threatened.

"Okay, if that was a threat, then remind me to never let you be a terrorist." He snorted.

"Shut up." I retorted.

The elevator's door opened with a ding. We walked into the small cabin and pressed the third floor button. I backed up into the corner and leaned my head against the wall.

"You still scared?" Richard asked. Clearly he had noticed the look of anxiety, terror, and anguish on my face because when I looked at him, he looked so concerned it was cute. '_SHIT! There I go again! Thinking a guy is cute. I hate myself for betraying my feelings.' _

"Rae?" He asked again after I didn't answer because I was to busy thinking how I let myself down by falling for Richard Grayson.

"Uh? Oh…yeah. I'm okay, but still a little shaky. Thanks for caring." I said turning my back to him and leaning my shoulder against the walls of the elevator. The bell rang indicating we were at my floor. The doors spread open and we exited the elevator's cabin and into the hallway.

"I'm in room #334." I said walking down the hall a ways and then rounding a corner. I stopped in front of my door and searched for my keys until I found them in my back pocket. I slipped the key into the hole and opened the door.

"I know it's small, but it's all I can afford." I defended myself.

Richard followed me in and started to look around.

"You like herbal tea, don't you?" He was looking at my many boxes of tea bags.

"It wakes me up without that nasty taste of coffee. And it calms me down." I smiled and went over to the TV cabinet that was by my bed. I pressed the eject button and placed the movie in the slot.

"Do you want anything to drink? I have…well, obviously tea. But I also have water, juice, I think I have a soda that I bought at the café but never drank it." I offered.

"Just water. But thanks." Richard came over to the bed and lay down on it. He kicked his shoes off, crossed his feet, and placed his hands behind his head.

"Make yourself at, even though it doesn't look like you need an invitation." I said opening the refrigerator and pulling out bottled water. I walked back over to the TV and pressed play and lay down besides Richard.

"Here's your water." I handed the bottled water to him. He opened it and started to chug down half the water.

The movie was long, but it wasn't scary… but not scary enough to freak me out. I rarely got freaked out. It's only when my father tells me he going to hunt me down that I might get scared. There were a few times during the movie that I had to scoot a little closer to Richard. He put his arm around me and started to rub my shoulder in comfort. By the end of the movie it was 6:35 p.m. and it was still raining outside.

"I got up to make myself some tea and get another bottled water for Richard who had chugged the second half of his water before a half hour into the movie.

"That was a good movie." I said trying to make conversation.

"I could tell it was because you got scared and cuddled with me." Richard teased.

"I'm making **_HOT_** water for my tea. So unless you want it thrown in your face, shut up." I growled. Truth be told. I didn't **_really_** get scared. I just wanted to be closer to Richard. _'And now I sound like some girly girl with a crush. Oh my God! Please, please don't turn into Shelly, Rachelle!'_

"Catch." I said throwing the bottled water from the kitchen to where Richard was still laying on the bed. He caught it. I waited for the teakettle to shriek and then I poured it into my mug and placed a tea bag in the boiling water.

"Can I use your bathroom Rae?" Richard asked standing up and walking towards me.

"Sure, **_Rich_**. It's just that way." I pointed in the direction of the bathroom.

"Thanks." He said walking into the bathroom.

"And that's what happens when you drinks that much water…" I mumbled.

I started to play with the tea bag's string when I heard a knock. I jumped at the sound.

"That's weird. Who would be at my door? Must be Karin…" I walked to the door and opened it. I froze and let out a scream.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 10

I tried to slam the door on George, but he pressed his body up against it and jammed his foot between the door and the doorframe so I couldn't close it. I pushed harder.

"Rachelle, that's not being a good hostess. You're supposed to let you guests come in." George said trying to push his way through the doorway. He squeezed passed me. And since I was pushing on the door, I fell to the floor with a thunk.

"Wow, this is a nice **_hotel_** room you live in." He said locking the door that I was laying against in a heap on the floor.

"Please, leave me alone…" I cried. I knew he wouldn't though. I started to cry. I guess I was crying out of fear. And I was scared. How did he find me? Will he hurt me?

"Oh, Rachelle." He chuckled looking at me being a pathetic little girl. I looked around to find an escape. Then the bathroom door opened and out came Richard.

"What the…" Richard looked from me to George. I took this moment when George was preoccupied in staring at Richard to get up and run over to Richard.

"No time. Just run!' I yelled grabbing Richard's hand and running towards a window. I was unlocking the window as fast as I could while George slowly walked towards us with an evil grin.

"Got over me that quickly?" George asked watching me hopelessly trying to open the window.

"Who the hell are you?" Richard yelled standing in front of me.

"You know you aren't going to escape, Rachelle." George ignored Richard, taking another step towards us. He stepped into range of Richard's fist because that's when Richard slugged George. He fell backwards obviously unprepared for the blow.

"Go!" I screamed as I slid the window opened and pushed Richard through the window. Richard climbed out onto the fire escape and held out his hands to help me through. I hadn't even stuck one foot out the window when George grabbed me and pulled me back. I screamed as I was pulled away from my escape.

"Let go!" I screeched. George turned me to face him and picked my up by my shoulders. And started to walk towards the front door. I screamed and started to pound on his chest and then I kicked as hard as I could where it hurts. He dropped me and he fell to his knees holding his crouched. I ran back to the window and opened it. Richard was trying to lower the steel stairs. It was still raining outside and it was getting dark. The storm clouds didn't allow much light so it was pretty dark.

I quickly crawled through the window and shut it. I looked through the glass to see George standing and walking towards me looking pretty pissed off. I turned back to Richard who was looking at me.

"We have to go!" I yelled the obvious. Richard waited for me to take his hand and we flew down the first set of stairs. Richard started to open the second set of stairs. I heard my hotel room window above us open and saw a foot.

"He's coming." I warned Richard. I was still crying, but nobody could tell because the rain mixed with my tears making it hard to tell them apart.

"It's going to be okay." Richard comforted as I hugged myself because I was cold.

"Now I'm pissed!" George said, fully out of the window and coming down the stairs.

"Shit!" I cried trying to speed the process of opening the stairs.

"If I can't bring you home and kill you, then I'll just have to kill you now." George reached out to grab me but I punched him in the gut. The stairs were out and ready for us to descend. Richard grabbed my arm and started to run down the staircase, but George had recovered easily and grabbed my sweatshirt's hood and pulled back. I fell to the ground and I felt something cut my leg. Richard looked back He ran back up to save me. I know it sounds cliché with the whole damsel in distress thing, but screw it. It's what happened.

I got the wind knocked out of me when I hit the ground and I was still in a daze when George picked me up by my neck and held me against the wall to the hotel. I couldn't touch the ground. He squeezed his hand that was around my neck. I coughed. I placed my hands around George's wrist and tried to push it away from my neck. It was futile. I felt the breath leaving me. It's a horrible feeling when you're being choked. It felt as though I was stuck under water and something was pulling me down. I gasped for breath but he was cutting it off. I started to kick and almost got George where I had before but he blocked it and threw me against the wall. Even though the impact caused my head to feel like someone had nailed a thumbtack into my head, it felt good to able to breath. I couldn't move for a second out of shock, so I was just lying there. My eyes were barley open but I saw Richard come up from behind George and wrap his arm around his neck and pull. George coughed and then elbowed Richard in the stomach. He clenched his stomach. George started to bend over him, but I didn't want to see what would happen next, so I got up despite my aching bones and head, and pushed George as hard as I could away from Richard. I got him by surprise because he fell on his side. I clutched Richard hand and pulled down the stairs.

"We don't have enough time to open these next stairs!" Richard yelled through the rain. I knew he was right but how were we supposed to escape.

"Jump!" I yelled running for the railing. Richard followed me. I jumped up onto the railing and off it. Most people would have wondered why I didn't use my powers or my wings to escape, but then again, I pretty sure they haven't been in a situation where if you revealed our true identity as an angel, then you would so not be accepted in their world or culture.

The fall wasn't too great. I made sure that when I landed, I rolled so it reduced the amount of impact. Richard wasn't far behind me. I got to my feet and waited for Richard to do the same. We were both panting as we ran through the rain. I didn't look back to see if George was there or not, I was just blindly running. We ran across the street to the city park. I slipped on the wet grass and got mud all over my sweatshirt. Richard helped me up. We ran until our feet couldn't hold our weight and we collapsed at a bus stop.

"We…should call the…police." Richard gasped. He was bent over and had his hands on his knees. I, on the other hand, was clinging to the pole that bared the bus stop sign, crying my eyes out. But I couldn't help it; the tears just kept coming out.

"No…w-we c-can't do that." I said between sobs.

"Why?" He asked still trying to catch his breath.

"Just trust m-me." I cried. Richard looked up at me. He walked over to where I clung to the pole, balling. He gently took me in his arms. I cried into his chest. My hands were grabbing his sleeves. I was shaking…partly because I was crying, partly because I was scared, and partly because I was just plain cold.

"It's okay. He's gone." Richard tenderly rocked back and forth.

I didn't answer I just allowed Richard to comfort me. I felt protected in his arms. It was like my haven.

"Let's go get dry." He let one arm fall to his side, but kept his other arm around me and we started to walk.

"W-where?"

"We can't go back to your apartment, and My step father's house is farther than my house, so let's go to my place…is that ok?" Richard asked.

"Y-yes." Was my weak reply.

I just lost all sense of time. My lungs hurt, my head was spinning from confusion and pain, my leg was cut, and I was drenched and muddy. After some time, we reached a house that looked pretty nice. We walked through a gate and up a path and onto a porch. Richard opened the front door and held it open for me. It was warmer in the house. Richard lead me to the kitchen, which was facing the dinning room that was connected to the family room, which had a fireplace and flat screen TV. _'No doubt this his Step Father's money'_ I sat down on the couch and watched as Richard lit the fireplace.

"I'm not sure if I have any tea, but do you want anything to drink?" Richard asked going to the kitchen to heat up some water.

"Hot coca?" I asked in a small voice. If I can't have my tea, then I'd have to settle for hot chocolate.

"Sure, I can do that." He smiled.

I watched the flames in the fireplace grow higher and higher. I always found it strange, fire, that is. Fire is an extremely hot substance. I didn't know the scientific term, but it was beautiful the way the red-orange flames had that little bit of blue at the base. And the way the flames licked at the air. The heat flooded the family room, and surrounded my body. I was pretty sure I had gotten Richard's couch drenched with water.

"You should change into something dry, or you might catch a cold…" Richard came over to where I was lying.

"I'm not sure you if you haven't noticed, but I'm not in my hotel room where all my clothes are." I teased.

"I know, you can borrow one of my t-shirts and a of sweat pants that are to small for me." He offered.

"Only if they're clean." I joked wiping the left over tears off my face. I sat up. Richard left the room to go get something for me to wear. I waited there listening to the crackling fire, a few seconds later Richard came back out with some clothes. He showed me the bathroom and handed me the clothes. The shirt was way to big and I pulled the drawstring on the sweat pants until they fit.

When I came out, my drink was waiting for me on the dinning room table. I looked around for Richard. He wasn't in the room. I sat at the chair in front of my cup of hot chocolate. I wrapped my hands around the cup letting its warmth soothe me. That's when the silence got to me. Richard wasn't there, there was no sound, and I was by myself.

"Richard? Are you there?" I asked kind of scared. No answer. I nervously looked around. _'Is George here? Did he find me again? Did he follow us home?'_ I started to panic. I got up from the table and walked into the kitchen and dropped into a corner.

"Richard?" I asked again. Then I heard a door open and close…


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 11

Have you ever been so scared that you couldn't take it? You just felt as if the only way to get out was…death? I guess that's what people call "Scared to death." I mean, maybe what that means, isn't actually scared to death, but that you are frighten to the point of suicide. Well, whatever the matter, I was feeling that at that moment; that moment, curled up into a ball in a corner, waiting for George or my father or any other enemy of mine to jump out and hurt me.

And then I heard the chair scrape across the floor and I froze. I tried to keep my breathing at a slow and quiet pace, but I was freaking out. The fear inside of me was growing and I couldn't take it. I put my head down and cradled myself, rocking back and forth. I heard footsteps come close to me and stop in front of me. _'Here it comes! Who ever wants to hurt me…this is their chance...' _ And that's when I couldn't take it anymore. _'I'm not going to be murdered or taken away to my father in hell any time soon!' _I gathered my energy inside of me and let it spew out of me, forming a black shield of pure dark energy. I looked up, my hands outstretched above me keeping the shield going.

"SHIT!" I screamed, realizing what I just did. For before me, was not any enemy of mine, but a very dumb struck Richard.

"W-what the HELL was t-that?" Richard asked still stunned from seeing me with a mysterious black power surrounding me.

"Um…er…y-you…" I stammered standing up a little shaky. And in the next seconds I figured that I was screwed. I couldn't tell Richard why I was on the floor with a black aura around me, and why George was set on killing me, and why I was really freaked at the beach. If I did, he would think of me a dangerous creep and run away yelling at the top of his lungs, just like everyone has for my entire life. I didn't know what to do. So I did what I thought was the only thing left to do, I ran. I ran out back into the rain and through the city, I didn't know if Richard had followed me; I couldn't hear over my foot steps pounding on the pavement, and me heart pounding for all that it was worth. The rain drops where falling. They felt good against my hot cheeks. My hair stuck to me skin and Richard's old shirt stuck to my skin like spandex.

"I knew you would break. And I think you did too." My father's voice cackled in my head. I ignored it. I knew I couldn't get him out of my mind; it was a waist of energy to try.

"You don't have any where to go dear, what are you going to do? Lie down and die?" My father asked with a chuckle to his tone.

"Sure." I said in a matter of fact tone, even though I was crying and my voice came out in whimpers and sobs.

And I meant it too. I couldn't do anything else but…die. I stopped in the middle of the rain, and hurriedly looked around. I had run out beyond the city's out skirts, which wasn't pretty far because Richard lived close to the out skirts. There was farm to my right and a meadow to my left. The grass was swaying in the wind making it look like an ocean. I walked over to the meadow. My arms squeezing myself for warmth and crying like I had when Sarah died. My teeth were chattering and my lips where blue. I was walking blindly in the tall grass. I didn't know or give a shit where I was going. And then, I just dropped down. I lay in the middle of the tall grassy meadow. I curled up into a ball, pulling my knees up to my head and my arms hugging them to me. It was pitch black and the stars and moon where out, not that I could tell because the clouds where in the way. I didn't care that I was lying in mud and that it was pouring rain. Just then, I felt something hard that I was lying on…I rolled over and sat up. I ran my hand over the muddy surface. Something hard brushed against my fingers. I bent over and saw a shiny object. I dug it up and held it up to my eyes. It was a semi rustic knife. _'Someone had probably lost it while walking out here and now it was getting rust on it because the rain.'_

It was an eerie moment right then, because the knife seemed to be 'calling' me. It's blade beckoning to my touch. I ran my finger across the blade. It felt smooth to my touch. And after that, it came naturally to me. I'm not sure if it was my father's over powering me to do the act, but I did. I just suddenly put the cold blade to my wrist and sliced; and then my other wrist and cut. I watched my blood pour from the wounds. At first I didn't feel anything. But then the pain poured out like the blood coming from my cuts. I started to feel dizzy, and then, slowly, the world started to spin and my eyes shut. I lay back, curling back up into a ball, and this time, I didn't cry. The rain drops rolling off my skin. I let the stinging feeling come. I couldn't do anything about it, so why try? Slowly, the world blacked out and I couldn't feel a thing…

Baby Sarah learning to walk…

Father hitting mom…

Us running through the night…

Our new house…

Sarah drawing…

A girl making teasing Sarah…

My fist hitting the girl who had teased Sarah…

George…

Sarah lying on the floor with blood pooling around her…

Her eyes half open staring at nothing…

And her hands outstretched in attempt for help from our mother…

Karin's skin and bone body…

Richard…

Him protecting me from George…

Me running away…

The knife…

My cuts…

The blood…

These memories flashed in my mind's eye. Then it was black, and everything was silent…until I heard a voice.

"Rachelle? Is that you?" The high voice rang.

"S-Sarah?" I couldn't believe it when Sarah walked out of the shadows. She looked better than ever. There was no wound where she had been stabbed, and no blood stains on her shirt. She didn't look scared or confused, but she had a smile on her face that made me feel warm. I ran towards her with my arms outstretched. I embraced her. Tears were coming to Sarah's eyes., tears of joy.

"Oh my God!" Was all I could say. I was to over come with joy in seeing my dead sister.

"I'm okay, Rachelle." Her young voice said. I was kneeling so I could match her size. She had her arms around my neck and her head buried in my neck. I could feel her tears on my bare skin.

"I'm so glad to see you!" I cried. I pulled away from my little sister and picked her up. I held her above my head. She still had a smile on her face.

"I've missed you so much! I've been waiting for you." Sarah said as I put her down on the ground.

"Why were you waiting for me? Where is here?" I asked holding her hand.

"Well, I know that you're here, but you can't stay. I'm just going to keep on waiting. And here is limbo. This is where lost souls wait."

"For what?" I asked.

"I'm not sure…" Sarah said looking up.

"Okay, then why can't I stay here?" I sat on the ground, pulling Sarah into my to lap.

"It's not your time or place." She answered.

"What does that mean?"

"Your place is earth, not limbo, or Angel's realm. And it's not your time to come here to where souls wait. You see, a person has to die to be a soul. It's not your time to die."

"It wasn't your time either. They murdered you, Sarah. You had no chance!" I cried.

"But you aren't completely dead yet. You still have a chance to live."

"What about you? I've been miserable without you! I love you." I could feel tears ready to pour out of my eyes. But I held them back.

"I am dead. True, I was killed unfairly, but life's unfair and you can't change it."

I hugged Sarah close to me. I knew life was unfair, I knew it from the moment I came into this world, with everyone treating Sarah and me differently. I knew life was shit.

"I've been watching you. I know how much you think about me. And I also know about Richard. I know how Dad is invading your mind." Sarah said in a comforting tone. "It's like I'm a Guardian Angel!"

Ever since I could remember Sarah has always wanted to be a Guardian Angel because they could go to the Human Realm and watch the people.

"Have you seen Mom? How's she?" I asked with a smile.

Sarah looked away and out into the blackness that surrounded us.

"I haven't seen her. I haven't tried. I don't ever want to see her again…"

"What? Why?" I was astonished that Sarah would say such a thing after Mom had taken us away from Dad so we could be safe.

"You know, I could have been saved, I shouldn't really be here…but Mom…she…" Sarah couldn't finish without crying. She held onto me like a first born did to their mother. And in that moment I remembered how Sarah's dead body was positioned, her arms out reached to Mother, who was crying in the corner.

"You mean…Mom didn't try to save you?" I asked with a horrific look on my face.

"Worse, she's the one who suggested the kill me. She's the one who asked George to murder me. She was afraid that we might turn on her. She didn't trust us…" Sarah was weeping. I held her tight. I rocked back and forth, trying to calm her down.

"Do you remember how we used to draw and write together?" I was trying to remind her of the good memories.

"Yeah. Do you remember the monks and going to the temple?" Sarah wiped the tears away. Her cheeks were rosy red, and her nose was red, the way it always gets when she cries.

"Or what about when we'd watch the stars at night, and talk about what we dreamt about doing in the future." I reminded her.

"My favorite memory was when I got scared that one night because there had been slight thunder and lighting, so I came into your bedroom and we stayed up playing cards, drinking hot chocolate, and playing hide and seek."

We sat there in the endless blackness reminiscing about the 'old days'. I would give anything to see the look on Sarah's face at that moment. Her eyes where lit up with excitement, and her smile was so childish. The way she talked was so cute.

After what seemed a long time, Sarah's smile faded.

"I have to go, and so do you. I don't want you to miss you chance to live…" Sarah frowned.

"I don't want to go!" I complained.

"I want you to stay, but I also want you to be happy, and alive. Go back to where you belong." She gave a slight smile and stood up. I got to my feet. As reluctant I was to leave my baby sister again, I bent down to kiss her cheek, as a good-bye. A tear trickled down my cheek.

"I'll miss you, I always have." I was crying now. But it was silent crying. Tears came out, but no whimpering.

"Just remember I am going to be right here waiting for you. I love you!" Sarah's voice called as she faded away. My heart felt hollow. I had found my sister and best friend, and now…I'd lost her again_ 'I should have just let myself die…I shouldn't have listened to what Sarah told me.' _

I felt pain growing in my wrists and something pulling at me arm. I barley opened my eye. At first my vision was blurry but as soon as it cleared up, I could see Richard bent over me with tears in his eyes. A sweatshirt was piled on the ground beside me, and Richard's shirt was off. He was tearing it into strips and tying them around my wrists to stop the blood flow.

"R-Richard…" It felt like I hadn't used my voice for a hundred years. It was scratchier than usual and it hurt to speak. I noticed it was beginning to be light and it had stopped raining.

"Rachelle? Did you just speak?" Richard asked.

"Y-yeah…" I coughed a couple times and slowly sat up. Richard helped me stay up right. He put his arm around me shoulders, it felt good to be back in my haven and warm. Then I remembered Sarah and our discussion and the fact that it was Mom's fault Sarah was dead… the way she betrayed us and didn't help Sarah as she watched her die.

"Sarah!" I screamed looking around.

"Who?" Richard looked confused. He put back on his sweat shirt.

"My sister. Is she here?" I asked, but then I recalled the way she said she'd be waiting.

"No." Richard brushed a loose hair back and away from my face. I smiled.

"I'm sorry…" I said in a small voice.

"You don't have to be sorry." He smiled holding me close. "Why would you be sorry?"

"Because of the way I just ran off." I looked down in shame. I glared at me bandaged wrists. Richard's white shirt strips where now stained with blood.

"Don't be…" He lifted me chin up towards him so that my face was facing his. I felt my throat starting to hurt. "Just promise me to never do it again. Don't ever scare me like you did again." He was serious now. I didn't have to ask him what doing 'it' ever again meant. I knew he meant attempting suicide.

Richard carried me back to the car. He had been driving around looking for me all night until somebody told him they saw me walk out here. I fell asleep in the car. I dreamed about Sarah and they way she smiled and laughed when she saw me. When we got back to Richard's house, he tucked me into the guest bedroom's bed. And when I woke up it was the next day. A bright sunny day.


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 12

My head felt heavy and as soon I stood up it started to spin. I felt dizzy. I held my head and squeezed my eyes shut. I don't want to go out there and face anybody, especially Richard. I could not tell him why I had run away from him and tried to kill myself. I shuddered. On the other hand, I couldn't hide in here all day because then Richard would know that I was afraid to show my face and come in and bug me until I talked. So I slowly walked out the room. I walked down the hallway towards the kitchen. Richard was already there eating breakfast. I drew in a deep breath.

"Morning Rae!" Richard said not even looking up from his cereal.

"Damn!" I whispered under my breath. "Morning…"

"I went to the store while you were asleep and bought some herbal tea for you."

I looked at the time. The clock read 10:34 a.m.

"I've been asleep for a long time!" I walked to the cabinet I saw Richard take out the hot chocolate from. The tea was on a shelf by Richard's cereal. I opened the box and pulled out a tea bag. I asked Richard where the cups were and he showed me. I started the hot water and then tried to make a run for it. I almost made it too if it wasn't for Richard turning around to see me tip toeing out of the kitchen into the hall.

"Rae come back." He said with a smile. He motioned for me to sit in front of him.

I stiffly walked to the seat across from him. I sat down with my head down.

"Rachelle are you okay?" He asked with concern drowning his tone.

"Sure." I mumbled still rigid.

I heard Richard shift in his chair. But I didn't look up. I wish I had my cloak. We always wore cloaks when entering the temple. It was required. Some people never took them off. I had a dark purple cloak. I loved its color because it was so purple it was almost black. My sister's was red, a burgundy type of red. I used to always wear my cloak until I went to High School. Then I stopped. I was longing for the cloak's ability to hide my emotions by covering my face with my hood right then.

"You're going to have to tell me some time what happened the other day and last night." Richard said softly. I didn't responded. I could feel my throat close up. My face got all warm and I found myself fighting tears away. "Rachelle?" Richard leaned across the table. He gently took my face between his hands and lifted my head to face him. I could tell by his face that he knew I was upset. I swear I tried as hard as I could, but it was a futile attempt because a tear slipped from my grasp and rolled down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away.

"I can't t-tell you…" My voice broke off.

"You have to. Whatever it is, I can help you."

"No you can't!" I half yelled. As soon as I realized I yelled at Richard I stopped, my eyes went wide. I didn't want to yell at him, but I can't take it when people don't know what the hell is wrong with me and then they say they can help when in fact they'll just run away scared. I panicked. I jumped up and ran for the door. My hand wasn't even on the knob when I felt Richard pull me down onto the ground. He pinned me against the floor.

"I'm not letting you do this again!" He yelled. Another tear ran down my face, but I couldn't wipe it because Richard was holding my arms down.

"Y-you can't h-help me." I cried in a small voice.

"Well you're not letting me try!" He yelled. He still was angry. "Rachelle, just give me a chance! It's not fair to do this to me!"

"If I told you, you'd never go near me again! Just like everyone else…" The tears came freely now. I used to have nights were I would wait fro everyone to go to sleep or when I was alone and I'd let go of my emotion. I would cry for hours on end. Sometimes I would cry because it felt good and others because all the little things kept building up on me. Ever since I came here, to the Humans' Realm, I couldn't do that. It had been a long time since I could cry myself to sleep or just cry. It didn't matter anymore though. I just cried.

"I'm not everyone else! Please." At that last word, Richard's voice came down into a plea. I couldn't look at him. I turned my head away and shut my eyes. I felt Richard slowly lift off of me. As soon as I was free, I didn't run I curled up into a ball.

"Rae…" Richard said with aguish in his voice. "Please!" Richard picked me up into his arms. I still didn't uncurl. He sat down on the couch and laid me across his lap. His arms were around me securely. My head was against his chest. I could hear his heart beat. I shifted to curl up into his chest.

"Rachelle, please tell me. I promise I won't turn my back on you."

"Promise?" I whimpered. My voice was muffled from his chest.

"I swear." He said squeezing me harder. He laid his cheek against my head.

"Here…goes…" I lifted my head up. " I ran away last night because I was trying to avoid this." I explained.

"What do you mean avoid this?" He asked.

"I mean, I know you saw me with my shield up in a corner and then that would cause you to ask me what the hell is up with me."

"I was just surprised to see…that _thing_ around you."

"Well, that's why I freaked out. I thought you would think of me as a freak after you learned I had those abilities…"

"And what exactly _are_ those abilities?" He asked looking down at me.

"Please don't freak out…I just have a mix of black magic and white magic…or powers if that's what you prefer to call them." I looked up at him. He had a smug grin on.

"Rae, don't joke." He laughed. That hurt. He didn't believe.

"I'm serious!" I screamed punching his arm and getting up.

"You're not going anywhere!" He laughed grabbing my wrist and pulling my back down on his lap.

"I told you'd think it was crazy!" I said struggling to get out of his iron grip that was holding me down.

"You're serious?" He asked arching his brow.

"Of course!" He looked at me funny. "That's right! My father is a demon and my mother is an angel…" I stopped to let it sink in. He looked confused…extremely confused. "Yep! Demons and Angels do exist. And I'm half of each. That's why I have both good and bad powers and that's why they murdered my sister and that's why they want to murder me!" I was screaming now.

"Who wants to kill you?"

"Do you lose your logic? The guy who broke into me hotel room and practically killed you and me!"

Richard now looked dazed, confused, surprised, and concerned.

"Rachelle, if you're kidding about this, then you are so…" His threat trailed off when I gave a loud shriek in frustration and stormed off into my bedroom. I plopped down on the bed and cried into my pillow. _'I knew he wouldn't believe! Know he thinks I'm crazy! Why didn't I just die there in the meadow?' _

" I'm sorry Rae." I barley heard Richard's voice over my sobbing. "I'm just a little surprised." I felt his weight as the bed alter to where he had sat down on the mattress.

"This is why I didn't want to tell you! This is why you should have just let me die in the meadow!" I wasn't sure he heard my muffled screams.

"I would and will never let you die by me, Rachelle!" He flipped me so I was on my back.

"So you don't think I'm crazy? You believe me?" I looked up at Richard who was now looking pretty upset too.

"It came from your mouth didn't it? I believe you Rae." He pulled me into a hug.

"Thanks." I smiled hugging him back.

It was quiet for a few seconds.

"So if you have powers, can I see them?"

"No." I laughed.

"Please."

"No Richard!" I smiled. "Oh shit! The tea!" I yelled getting off the bed and rushing for the door.

"Rae! I turned it off before I came in here!" I stopped and headed back to where Richard was sitting on the bed.

"Please." Richard gave the cheesiest puppy-dog face ever.

"I'm not showing you my powers!" I laughed at his pathetic attempt.

"Fine. Then I'm not talking to you!" He pouted turning his back to face me and crossing his arms firmly on his chest.

"Oh, finally! Shit, I thought you'd never stop yapping!" I teased.

"What if I did this?" Richard asked throwing a pillow at me. I dodged.

"I would do that." I grinned.

"Why won't you show me?" He asked.

"Because my powers are not for entertainment." I turned to open the door. Richard jumped off the bed and ran full speed into the door, shutting it and then locking it so I couldn't get passed him and out the door.

"Then you can't leave." He smiled.

"Move Richard." I growled playfully.

"Make me." His smile was smug and had that 'do it if you dare' look on his face.

"Fine!" I laughed throwing my hands out in front of me. I felt the power gather in a ball in my gut and then travel to my fingertips. Soon, there were two black orbs of my power surrounding my hands. I narrowed my eyes.

"Last chance Richard!" I grinned evilly. He only looked from my hands to my face and then grinned.

"What are you waiting for?" He said with a cocky tone.

I whispered 'Azerath, Metrion, Zythose.' I let the black aura flow out of me. I shot it at the door, not Richard. As soon as the black power hit, I walked out the door, well technically I walked _through_ the door. I found myself in the hallway. I grinned a cocky grin and started to walk back into the kitchen. I poured the semi warm water into my mug and set the tea bag in it. I could hear Richard gasp very loudly. Then I heard him open the door and his footsteps coming towards the kitchen.

"That was freakin awesome. Rae!" He yelled with the widest grin.

"Now will you leave me alone?" I asked.

"Hell no!" He ran towards me and pulled me into a breath-taking (literally) hug.

"Can't breath Richard." I gasped as he let go of me. "I will kill you if you tell anyone!" I bellowed.

"I wouldn't! Besides, you'd kill me if I did!"

"I would!" I smiled turning to go to the counter where my tea was. I took sip and instantly felt calm.

"So you ready for the prom?"


	14. Sorry note

Hey you guys! I'm so sorry that it's taking so long to write the next chapter. But I promise that I'm still writing. Its just school is getting in the way and I also have volleyball practice. But I am working on it and Grey angel will be updated soon. Also just so you know how hard I have been working, I am working on the sequel to Grey Angel. So hold on and the next chapter is on its way. Sorry for the inconvenience.

- RavenOfAzerath


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 14

It was Monday. I went to school early. Even though I had moved in with Richard a few days ago, I always woke up before and went to school without him. He didn't mind.

After I told Richard who I really was, we went back to my hotel room, and packed the few things I owned. Then I checked out of the hotel and brought my things back to Richards place. But before I left the hotel lobby the guy behind the front desk told me I had a message. It was Karin. When I listened to the message, her voice sounded distressed. I could barley make out what she was saying. She crying into the phone, and it sounded like she was whispering, as if she was making sure no one could hear her. Or she was hiding. Then there was yelling and a crash could be heard and then the phone went dead. I was really worried and wanted to make sure she was ok. But I didn't know her phone number, where she lived, or anything.

I unpacked my bag and closed my locker. I was getting anxious. I wanted to see Karin. I walked out the school doors and into the morning air. I walked down the steps leading to the huge double doors that were the entrance to the school. I sat on the half wall that ran around the hedges that were standing in front of the school. I lay on my back, looking up at the sky. There was one cloud. It was big and it had blue and purple tucked away in its curves. It was moving slowly across the vast sky. I closed my eyes and sat up. I crossed my legs and placed my hands in my lap. It was easy to meditate at school that early since there's nobody there to make noise. I concentrated on my breath, my heartbeat, and the feeling of the brisk air on my bare skin. '_Is Karin safe?'_

"My dear child, nobody is safe if they know you." Laughed my father's voice.

"Leave me alone." I growled.

"You are never alone. I am always with you." He laughed again.

"I know that you're just trying to scare me."

"Am I? Is it not true that you have already put Richard in danger? George came looking for you. Didn't he?" Trigon asked.

' _How'd he know?' _

"I know because I'm your father."

"Leave me be, Trigon." I warned.

"So I'm Trigon, not dad?"

"Never." I growled through gritted teeth.

"What ever the case, I think you should be worried about putting people in danger."

"I'm not putting anyone in danger." I knew that I was in fact putting anybody who I ever spoke to in danger. I knew it but I wasn't about to admit that my father was right.

"Aren't you worried that Karin is hurt…because of you?" The demon said in a low voice.

"I never thought of that…" I was pondering the thought when Richard, who had apparently snuck up on me, jumped out from behind the hedges and grabbed my shoulders and pulled, screaming 'BOO!' As he pulled me back I fell backwards into his arms.

"Richard!" I yelled. My heart was racing.

"That was so funny! You should have seen…." Richard paused. He noticed I wasn't laughing. "Rae, are you ok? You look troubled."

"Have you seen Karin by any slim chance?" I was looking around the campus, which now had a few students wondering around. No sign of Karin.

"No. Why? Are still worried that phone call?" Richard asked pushing me back to my feet.

"I think…maybe…" I wasn't entirely sure what I thought.

"She's ok. Don't worry about it."

I sat back down on the half wall. I pulled Richard down beside me. I leaned closer so that no one could hear what I was saying.

"Ok. Here's the thing. Before you o-so rudely scared the crap out of me, I was meditating and my father told me I may have put Karin in danger just like you, and…"

"Wow, wait. You haven't put me in danger." Richard said in a calm voice.

"Don't do this. I did, I almost got you seriously hurt with George." I was getting irritated. I couldn't have Richard telling me I wasn't putting him in danger when I was.

And then, my eye caught Karin hunched over looking at her feet and slowly making her way to the school's double doors. I stood up and ran over to her. She didn't notice me until I was a couple feet away from her. She looked up at me with mournful eyes. I could tell she was sleep-deprived, and had been crying that morning. Her eyes were red and her eyelashes were stuck together because of tears. But the first thing that I noticed, and scared me was the gash on the side of her head. It was a long gash that started by her ear and ran down her cheek to about her jaw.

"Are you okay Karin?" I asked. My voice was dripping with concern.

"I'm fine. You get my message?" She choked out.

"Yeah. I couldn't reach you though."

"Yeah, I figured." She said coldly.

"You have to understand! I couldn't reach you because I was busy. I didn't blow you off!"

"Ok." She brushed pass me. I knew she didn't believe me.

"Karin!" I yelled. I ran after her. "Listen to me!" I grabbed her backpack and pulled back. She stumbled backwards.

"What was that for? You could have hurt me!" She shrieked as I dragged to where Richard was still standing.

"We have to tell her." I explained to Richard. Karin was struggling to get out of my grip. I handed her to Richard her had to wrap his arms around her to keep her from running away.

"Why are you so mad at me?" I half yelled at her.

"Because my life is shit!" She yelled. A couple students turned to look at us.

"Karin, listen to me very closely." I looked at her face. She looked so screw up. Her eyes had purple circles under them.

"No! You listen to me! While you were having a "busy" weekend, I found out I was adopted and then my dad got mad at me because he thought I was snooping in his stuff and started throwing things, so I called you and you didn't pick up because you were having a fun weekend. And then my dad found me hiding from him in the closet with the phone and threw it at me." She pointed at her gash. I almost exploded.

"I'm sorry about not being there when you called, but my weekend was far from fun!" I could barley keep my voice from rising, but I didn't want to bring attention to myself.

"Oh yeah? What happened that could possibly be as bad as mine?" She looked at me with angry eyes. I looked at Richard then back at Karin.

"I was busy running away from my ex boyfriend who is trying to kill me after he killed my sister because we are half demon and half angel, and my father is the supreme demon. And the other night, when I tried killing myself, my dead sister told me our mother was the one who sent George to kill us. And then I told Richard about my past and had to deal with him." At that last sentence I looked at Richard. He looked at me with a serious face and the he let a grin break through. He let Karin go.

"That's not funny, Rachelle." She sounded pretty pissed off.

"It wasn't supposed to be, Karin." I retorted.

"You are getting on my nerve. Do not mess with me." She looked hurt. I had to prove it to her that I was telling the truth.

"You don't believe me? Then watch this…" I stepped closer to her and held out my hand. "Do you see? My hand is empty." Then I clenched my hand into a fist. I slowly opened it back up to reveal a hovering black orb of energy. I held it up to her astonished face. "Go ahead and touch it to make sure its real."

"I-it won't h-hurt?" She looked a little afraid. I nodded. She just barley touched it. As soon as her finger made contact, she abruptly pulled it back. "I'm not s-sure what to s-say." Karin's eyes screamed confusion.

"You don't have to. Just don't tell anyone." I clenched my fist shut again to cease the orb of dark energy. I looked up at Richard who had walked to my side. He was looking at Karin.

"Well, she took that better than me." He said sheepishly.

"I think you were equal." I whispered. "C'mon." I motioned for Richard to follow me as I walked beside Karin up the school's steps.

It wasn't until lunch that Karin spoke to me again.

"So what are we going to do?" She asked in a quiet voice as I settled into my seat between her and Richard.

"My real is Kori." She said as I settled into my seat between her and Richard.

"So how is it knowing you're adopted?" I asked in a low monotone voice.

"It's weird knowing my dad and mom aren't my birth parents. I wonder who my real parents were."

We sat in silence for a minute or two, until she spoke again.

"Rachelle. I don't think I can go back home." Karin said looking down at the table.

"I was just thinking you could come live with Richard and me." I looked at Richard who looked surprised. He looked at me and shook his head. I mouthed 'please' and he tilted his head to the side. I made a face and mouthed the sentence 'do it or else.' He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, it would be wonderful to have you live with Rae and me." He sighed again.

"Really? Thank you so much!" She cried as she moved her lips into the biggest smile I've ever seen. "My dad will get mad though. He would never let me."

"Who gives a crap about him? He can't hurt you. Trust me." I gave a weak grin.

"We'll go by your house after school to pack your things. You can bunk with Rae." Richard suggested.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 15

After school we went to Karin, or should I say Kori's, house. She was so nervous about facing her father about leaving him that she practically barfed on the way over. I had to comfort her for like fifteen minutes and give a short prep talk. We decided that after all, we should try sneaking in rather than facing her father at the front door. So we walked around the house, well it wasn't really a house, to the side window. The widow was cracked and the white paint now yellow and chipped with age. The house was brick and coming apart. Most bricks had cracks and chips in them, some bricks where actually missing, revealing the cement that held the bricks together.

"We can climb through this window. It doesn't lock because it's so old." Kori whispered. Richard carefully pushed the window open. It gave a small creek to which Richard's eyes widened and stopped pushing.

"I can't push it open any further or it will creek." He complained.

"I can't climb through that." Kori said started to look panicked.

"For god sakes, the world won't stop just because we can't climb through a window. Remember I have special abilities." I was starting to get frustrated at their ignorance. I closed my eyes and focused my energy on the wall. I placed my hands on the rough brick surface and with my dark magic, created a porthole in the wall. The two other teenagers looked in astonishment as I motioned them to walk through. Richard hesitated and then grabbed Kori and threw her in front of him.

"You first!" He barley kept his voice from cracking.

"No!" She whispered grabbing his arm and pulling him in front of her. My patience was very low today.

"I'm not going first, it's creepy." Richard tried to say it in a low voice so I couldn't hear. But I did. It kind of stung. But hey, you know what they say, when you feel pain so much, you become numb to it. And in my case, pain was my life. It was a part of me.

"What if I die?" The two just kept at it. They acted as if I weren't even there. They wouldn't stop talking about my powers and how creepy they were and that my powers might kill them and so on. Like I said, my patience was low and now I was running out of it.

"I wouldn't let my powers kill you! Can't you people trust me?" I fiercely whispered. "I know that I'm creepy and not normal. I understand that you are afraid of me, but can you have some courtesy not to make it so apparent when I'm right here?"

Richard and Kori just stared at me. I could tell that they could sense the anger, hurt, sadness, and betrayal in my eyes. Then Richard looked down and silently walked through the black hole. Kori followed them and then I waiting a couple of seconds before allowing myself to enter the house.

We came into a room that had boxes every which way. It was dark, it had no lights except the window, and it had a damp smell to it. The corners of the ceiling were dripping cobwebs and there was a huge crack that went from one side of the ceiling to the other. I walked around, looking in the boxes. They seemed to be filled with crap, useless junk. There was an old sneaker in one, an old ripped book, a cable of some sort, and a broken keyboard in one box. In another box there was something more heart felt, a picture of Kori and an older man and older women. I took a wild guess that it was Kori and her parents. I didn't want to ask, so I just slipped the picture into my backpack.

"What's this room for?" Richard asked looking disgusted at the room's lack of character and cleanness.

"It is my father's office. I haven't really been allowed in here." Kori said looking around. "Com'n. My room is the next room over." She led us out the door and down a hall. We tiptoed into her room. I was the last in line. I looked ahead and saw a figure sleeping on a bid chair. Even the chair wasn't facing me; I could tell the person sitting in it was Kori's father. His arm was hanging over the armrest with a beer bottle half falling out of it. I ducked into the bedroom.

"Hurry just get some things, don't bring too much." I whispered helping her grab bags or what ever I could use as a suite case type thing. After about five minutes of helping Kori pack, I heard a crash. It sounded like breaking glass. We all froze. I quickly peaked out the doorway. The beer bottle in Kori's father's hand had dropped onto the floor and shattered. And then I saw his hand flick and a deep breath being drawn in. A chill ran down my back as I realized he had woken up. The chair shifted and I saw the figure rise. He started to turn towards me. I spun around and caught the two other pairs of feared filled eyes.

"He's awake!" I whispered running towards the closet and grabbing Richard by the hand, pulling him with me. I quietly shut the closet door and settled behind a group of hanging clothes. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I began to realize that Kori had next to nothing in her closet, just the clothes she was using to hide herself, which was jeans, a few shirts, and her uniform, plus one blouse. As the room became silent I could hear Richard's breathing. His breath was coming hard and fast and his grip on my hand was deadly. I didn't want him to totally freak out, so I rubbed his palm with my thumb in a comforting, caring motion. His breath slowed and his gripped loosened. But it wasn't long before Richard's breathing picked when because we could hear Kori's father pounding into the room.

"Karin! What the hell are you doing?" He screamed. I could just imagine Kori cringing in fear.

"N-nothing." Was her small reply.

I didn't understand. What was she doing that was so bad? I mean we hid the bags from plain sight so he wasn't getting mad at her for packing…

Her father mumbled something. I found a crack in the closet's door to look out of. I could see Kori backed up into a corner and her father towering over her. He had matted hair and looked fairly unclean. His shirt was stained and he looked like he hadn't exercised in a fairly long time.

"What did you do?" He cried. He stumbled backwards in a drunk kind of way.

Kori didn't say anything. She was starring at the ground.

"Where is she?" He yelled. He raised his hand over Kori. I gasped not wanting to see the rest. I shut my eyes and squeezed Richard as I heard his hand make contact with Kori. I hear her whimper. My heart broke. I know that anybody who truly knew me thought that since I was half demon that I didn't have the ability to feel mercy, pity, or sadness for another living thing. But that's just it, I'm also half angel. I felt sadness over come me when I heard another blow. This time I heard Kori cough like she had taken a blow to the lungs.

"Why did you do it?" He shrieked.

I cringed. I couldn't take it. I couldn't just sit there while she was getting hurt. For me, it's one thing when I'm hurt; I'm use to it. I can handle it because it's a part of me. But when others are hurt for no good reason…I can't take it. I'd rather take the pain for someone else then see them get hurt. That is if they are innocent.

But before I could do anything to help Kori, Richard slapped his hand over my mouth. I glared at him from the corner of my eye. He was staring through the crack in the door. I guessed that Kori's dad was looking at the closet with suspicion. And then I realized that I had let out a whimper of sympathy for Kori and it was a little too loud. I had just given away our hiding spot. I was thinking of how to get out of this. Unfortunately, before I could even think about teleporting us to safety, Kori's father threw the door open. I stiffened behind the clothes. Richard's hand that was clamped over my mouth was beginning to get a little sweaty. I could tell he was trying to breath. The clothes parted and standing above our cowering bodies was the man that had done so much harm to Kori. Richard let go of me. I wouldn't let myself look away from the drunken man.

"Who the hell are you?" He snarled at us.

Neither of us said a word.

"Kori?" He yelled spinning around and walking towards her crumpled body that was lying on the ground helplessly. "Who are they?" He demanded.

She didn't even lift her head. He drew his leg back to kick her. I panicked at that moment. I wouldn't, I couldn't, let him hurt her again. I jumped up and sprinted to where he stood and flung myself at him. I hit him directly on his side. He flew against the wall. I ran over to Kori and lifted her head. She had a bloody nose. She looked at me through eyes barley opened. And then I felt hands on my shoulders. They spun my around. I faced a truly drink and pissed off man. His hands that where holding my shoulders where squeezing really tight. His fingernail dug into my skin. _Better me than Kori. _He let go of me with one hand and clenched it into a fist. He flung it right into my stomach. I gasped as I fell to my knees. I couldn't breathe. I clutched my arms around my sides. Stupidly, I squeezed my eyes shut. That was a mistake because I didn't see the knee coming straight for my face up until the last moment when his knee was moments away from making contact. But I didn't feel anything. When I opened my eyes Richard was throwing himself at Kori's father and rustling him to the ground. I crawled to where Kori was trying to get up. She was holding her head.

"Let's get out of here." I moaned reaching under her bed for the two bags we managed to fill. As soon as I realized I had a few moments to spare because Richard was holding the drunk man off pretty well, I dashed for the closet and stuffed the few clothes that were hanging in there into one of the bags. I ran back to Kori. She took a bag and then ran for the door. I grabbed Richard's collar and dragged him out of the room. We followed Kori out of the house's front door and into the street. We didn't look back. We ducked into a dark deserted alley. I quickly grabbed Richard's hand and Kori's hand and let my power encircle us. The black energy engulfed us.

I teleported them back to Richard's house. As soon as we got there we lay Kori on the couch and got some ice for her bruise and a cloth for her bloody nose.

"Thanks you guys. I'm sorry that I dragged you into that. I can't believe how stupid I was to let you do that." She groaned.

"None of this is your fault, Kori. Please don't beat yourself up." I pleaded.

Richard had left to put her bags in my room. He came back out and got some ice for himself.

I then remembered something important. I took both their ice packs and dropped them into the sink.. Kori looked at me with questioning eyes. I bent over Kori and placed my hands over her face. I waited a few seconds and then lifted my hands.

"Oh yeah! Rachelle can heal people too." Richard said smiling.

"Do you have any other injuries?" I asked. Kori pointed out her bruised side. I healed that and a couple of other bruises on her body. Then I moved onto Richard. After everybody was healed I set some water on the stove and left the room without any words. I walked into my bedroom, now Kori and mine's bedroom, and flopped on the bed.

"Ugh. Life is getting to complicated!" I breathed into the pillow. I know that my life was far from easy, but the way I kept dragging innocent lives into my world, my dark hopeless world…I knew that it would be best to just vanish from their lives, by death or just leaving. I had to get them out of the danger that I put them in because I know them.

"What do I do?" I asked myself. I started to think of my situation. Two people new me for who I honestly was, and they are now in danger of dieing. Either they could get in the middle of a fight between George and me and get seriously injured, or my father could track them down and he would no problem killing them just to make me feel crappy. I knew that I was a hazard to them.

"I can always kill myself…" But I couldn't think about that. It just brought up the still vivid images of Richard and my sister and that horrific night. I pushed my face into the pillow further and groaned in frustration.

"Rae?" Came Richard's voice from behind the door.

"What do you want?" I asked a little more coldly than I intended.

"Can I talk to you?" He began to open the door.

"I'd rather not talk." I mumbled as he entered the room. He sat down on the bed, placing his hand gently on my lower back. I didn't move.

"I don't care. We need to talk." He said.

I sat up and sat on the edge of the bed facing my back to him.

"What?" My voice dripped with warning. I really didn't care for a chat right then.

"I want to say sorry for acting like a fool today when I said those things about your powers being creepy and all. I didn't mean to say that out loud. I don't think that you are creepy…it's only your powers." He explained. I was staring out the window, half ignoring Richard. I hated myself for falling for Richard. That's right, I admit to so stupidity falling for a guy. I couldn't feel enough love for someone to protect them. I couldn't. Every day, I cursed myself for falling for Richard. How I loathed myself.

"Richard, I don't know how to say this, but I have to go. I seriously have to leave this place. I can't live with you or Kori anymore." I hung my head.

"Rachelle, please don't do this." He pleaded. What the hell was I doing? I'm telling Richard the truth! I had to leave because I loved my friends and couldn't stand to see them die because of me.

"I'm not doing anything!" I yelled at him turning to stare him in the face. That was a mistake because his eyes engulfed me. His eyes were swimming with sadness, and helplessness. They screamed to me to be understanding. But I was understanding.

"Don't do it…" He whispered. I could see he was fighting away something, maybe tears.

"Don't do what? Leave? I have to!" I cried throwing my hands up.

"I know what you mean by "leave". I heard you talking to yourself in here. You said you were going to kill yourself." I saw him blink away a tear. My throat locked up and I couldn't speak. _He heard me! _I became overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do. Richard noticed my surprise and my inability to speak.

"You think that killing yourself would help us?" He asked his voice rising.

"Well, yeah. You don't understand, Richard! The longer I stay here the more danger you are in. You are risking your lives by helping me!" I yelled. I felt the urge to cry, but I had to keep it in. I had to. I've cried way too much and it shows weakness.

"No, Rachelle! You don't understand! You're being so selfish!" His voice was now angry. That comment felt like a blow to my head. I stared at him wondering if he really said what I had just heard him say. In my paralyzed state I accidentally let a tear slip from my grasp.

"W-what do you mean "selfish"?" I stammered, my voice cracking. "I've never in my life loved a living person, besides my sister and, at a time, my mother, so much that I would die for them!" I yelled. This time my voice did not drip of warning, but hurt.

"If you died have you ever thought of what it would do to Kori and I?" He said a little more calmly. "Ever since you came into her life, she has seen hope. I can tell because before you came to the school, I would see her in the halls with her head down and avoiding everything. I never her talk to anyone and she was always alone. But now she has a friend. She has hope." He placed a hand on my shoulder. I backed away from his touch. I backed up into the corner of the bedroom and sank to the ground.

"So now I've not only put my friends in danger, but I have also managed to curse my friend with hope." I said quietly.

"Cursed with hope?" Richard asked.

"Hope is nothing but a curse. I have learned no to have hope. Hope is a feeling that people hold onto and make them live just a bit longer until the hope is lost and they die. Haven't you ever had hope for something, and then when you find out it can't be done or it isn't real, you feel so hurt and lost?" I asked looking at him.

"Yeah. Everyone has."

"Well, hope is a misleading illusion that will take you farther and farther away from the right path. Then it deserts you and you become lost and filled with despair."

Richard seemed to think about it. I let me head drop down. I pulled my knees up to my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs. I put my forehead to my knees and shut my eyes. I heard the bed springs creek but I didn't look to see if he was finally leaving. I waited a few seconds. When I lifted my head Richard was sitting beside me with his knees up and arms perched on them.

"Rae, you have to think about hope in the sense that it might actually save a life instead of destroying one. For instance, if a man was seriously addicted to a drug and wanted to stop but no matter how much he tried he kept at it, do you think it's possible for him to overcome his addiction?" Richard asked looking at me. I looked away.

"Maybe."

"Well that maybe is called hope. If he had hope in himself to will himself to at least try, he might gather enough hope and confidence to join a rehab or something. So you see, hope may lead you off onto the wrong path, but it can also lead you off the wrong path onto the right one."


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 16

I was pondering what Richard had said about hope. I had my head in my hands and my hands resting on my knees. Richard was still sitting beside me. I felt his arm go around me. He pulled me a little closer. I rested my head on his shoulder and moved closer to him without hesitation. Even though I loathed myself for falling in love with him, I couldn't help the feeling of warmth and safety when I was in his arms. _Safety!_ I scoffed at the thought. Safety was the last thing the surrounded my friends and me.

"Just remember to hope. Hope for the best." Richard crooned.

"I'm not sure I can. I've taught myself to ignore hope." I whispered.

He placed his other arm around me. I rested my head against his chest. I could feel his chest move up and down. He was calming. I closed my eyes. We sat there for a period of time, that is until it was ruined.

"Awww! Look at you two!" Kori was standing in the doorway with her arms across her chest.

"Shut up!" I moaned not moving from my spot.

"So are you feeling better about the situation?" Richard asked Kori. I knew he meant the way she was living with us and all.

"Yeah, but I haven't been able to unpack because these to people are hogging the room." She teased. Kori walked to her bags and began to search for places to put them. I had only needed the dresser to store my clothes, so Kori hade the entire closet to her. She slowly unpacked her belongings. Richard stood up. He helped my up, and the three of us walked out into the living room. Kori, in her spare time while we were talking, had made my tea and made a cup for herself. I sat down at the table and drank my tea.

"So what are we going to do? It's a late afternoon on Monday. What is there to do?" Kori asked eager to do something.

"Well, we have to be at work real soon." I reminded her.

"Oh yeah." Her smile turned into a frown. "Work."

"It's not that bad. It's neat listening to people's poetry. Plus we can read in our spare time." I mused.

"Sure, sure." Kori pouted on the couch.

"Well, there's got to be a game on TV or something interesting to watch. I can keep myself busy." Richard reassured us.

I left the room, after placing my tea mug in the dishwasher, and went to go clean up and get ready for work. I took a shower and got dressed in dark denim jeans and a black spaghetti strap shirt. I lined my eyes with my usual black eyeliner. I also slapped on some black lipstick. Hey, I already know I'm dark, why hide it? I pinned my nametag on my shirt and headed out my bedroom door. Kori had already run through right after I got out.

I walked into the living room.

"Where's Kori?" Richard asked flipping through the channels.

"She's changing for work." I answered him plopping on the couch with my favorite Edgar Allen Poe poetry book. It was harder to concentrate on my book with the chatter of the senseless TV shows Richard was watching.

"Ok, let's go, Rae." Kori called from the front door.

I closed my book and placed it on the couch and walked to the front door.

Richard waved bye and we left. It was a longer walk to the Dark Days café. We reached there a half an hour later.

"You're late!" Our boss yelled. We quickly got our little black aprons from the backroom and started work immediately.

At first the evening business was slow but it picked up around 7:45. I would wait on a customer and then I'd sit down and listen to the open mike poets.

After 8:13 p.m. rolled by a group of guys passed by the café's window. It was the Jump City High's football team. I despised them. I would sometimes catch bits of their conversations as I passed by them in the school's halls. They would talk about girls and of the latest show or some junk thing like that. I loathed the way some fools would bow down to them or be intimidated by them just because they were jocks with big heads.

I nearly died when one of them opened the door to the café. The rest fallowed. They were loud and obnoxious. The poet who was reciting a very dark and beautiful piece was drowned out by their laughter and yells. I got angry. They thought that they were too cool for common courtesy. Why were they coming in anyway? They didn't belong here.

"Hey let's check out the Goths' café." Said the one who opened the door.

So that's why they came in. To criticize the place where different people hung out. I got up from where I was sitting. I took my place at the cash register and the pack of jerks to approach me.

"Hey what's up?" Laughed one of them.

"Can I help you?" I asked with a monotone, cold voice.

"Sure babe." I knew he was just trying to annoy me. "What kind of food do you serve here?" I was about to answer when another asshole interrupted me.

"Bat's wings? Vampire's blood? Human guts?" He joked. So they thought that Goths eat that stuff?

"No. We serve whatever you can see that's on the menu." I answered trying not to yell at them.

"Oh, then we'll wait before we buy anything." The first guy replied. His smile was so cheesy it killed me. I rolled my eyes and turned to walk away. I knew all they wanted to do was make fun of the people who came to this café. I walked out from behind the counter and back to my seat in the corner where the bookshelves were. I reopened my Stephen King horror book.

"Got any spell books in here?" The pack had followed me. The football player was searching the shelves.

"No." I growled.

"Gee, you Goths sure are pissy." He laughed, giving one of his fellow losers a high five for his o-so clever insult.

"Sure." I knew if I ignore them they would go away.

"So you admit to being a bitch?"

"Leave me alone." I warned, my head not even moving from my book.

"You creepy people always want to be left alone." He mumbled. Somebody in the crowd of jocks snickered. I was so close to hitting him. I hated being called creepy. They didn't even know me. Yeah, they'd still call me creepy, and probably more, if they knew what I really was, but the way people automatically assume that if you are Goth then you're creepy and like to drink blood and eat bat's wings. It really pissed me off.

"If you have no business here except to annoy me, then leave." I glared at them.

"Oooo! She's warning us. What do you think you can do? Cast a spell on us?" He retorted.

I stood up and walked over to them.

"I'll show you the way out." My tone was chilling. I pushed them out the café's doors, but as soon as I got them half way out, someone pushed me out of them. I stumbled into he group of football players. I looked behind me to see who had pushed me. It was another football geek. I tried pushing my back to the café doors but a hand wrapped around my arm. I fell backwards.

"So you think you're big and scary?" The guy who had pulled me back asked.

"Just leave me be." I warned again. He raised his eyebrows. I slapped his hand off my arm and turned to go back inside but he caught me again but this time around my waist. I jerked around. I pulled back my clenched hand and slugged him right in the nose. He reeled back in pain.

"Don't ever touch me again!" I yelled. Before I could even think about going back to work, he threw himself at me.

"Bitch!" he yelled. He hit me with such force I almost hit my head hard enough to go unconscious. The football team had now encircled me. To bad they café's windows where painted black so no light could shine through because now nobody could see that I was being attacked. He stood over me. I looked up at him. He was smiling.

"You Goths think you're all tough at what not, but you're not."

"You are such a pig." I moaned. I flung my leg up. He made a stupid mistake of standing over me. I kicked right where it hurt him the most. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground cupping his crouch. I crawled out from underneath him. The other guys tried helping their buddy. But a few stayed to make sure I couldn't leave. I was struggling to get out of their iron grip.

"Let go of me you bastards!" I shrieked. Just then, the two men holding me fell on their backs. I stared in astonishment as Kori stood over their bodies with a pan in her hands. She was smiling.

"Thanks." I whispered with a weak grin. We both looked back to the retreating group and went back inside.

"Are you okay?" Kori asked walking me to the back room.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said sincerely

"I saw you go outside but when you didn't come back in I looked out and they were crowed around you. I went to the kitchen to get the pan." She explained.

I cleaned up my nose, which had started to bleed since that guy hurled himself at me. Then I joined my fellow employees. The rest of my workday was a little more relaxing. I had one girl who was so impatient, but I held my tongue no matter how much I wanted to grab her nose piercing and drag her out the door. By the time we closed the café it was 9:12 p.m. and we were really tired.

The cool night air felt good on my cheeks. The walk back was relaxing. Kori and I talked and it felt good to know I had an actual friend.

"Richard?" I asked opening the front door.

"Over here." He said looking over his shoulder from the couch. He was watching some dumb show.

Kori and I left Richard to his TV and we went to get ready for bed. I changed into my black PJ pants and my purple cami. I brushed my teeth and cleaned my face.

"So what are we going to do tomorrow?" Kori asked after we had figured out our sleeping plan and got in bed. The lights were turned off and the window was open letting a small breeze course through the room.

"Well besides going to school, I don't know." I answered.

"Tomorrow is Wednesday." Kori thought aloud. "Oh my God! That means it's only two days away from Prom!" She exclaimed sitting up.

"Oh joy." My sarcastic tone fit my feelings toward the stupid event. I didn't care about getting dressed up to go out with a guy, in my case Richard, and dancing the night away. _Maybe I'll just show up to Prom with jeans and a T-shirt on._


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 17

Ever since yesterday, when Kori reminded herself that she needed a date for the Prom and only had two days to get one, she had been trying everything to find one. Not that she's as obnoxious at trying to find a date as Shelly. Unlike her, Kori hasn't been flirting with every guy she met. I had caught Kori scanning the hallways and lunchroom for a possible date. It actually got a little annoying, not that I would ever tell her that. But Kori's annoying behavior of finding a date didn't even come close to her sudden out burst of shopping for dresses for the special event.

"We should go shopping after school!" Kori exclaimed as we walked to our last class.

"Kori, for the thousandths time, I don't like to shop!" I practically yelled out of my frustration.

"But it'll be fun." She pouted. "Please, Rae. You have to look pretty for the Prom…not to mention Richard."

"Richard will have to live with me showing up to the prom with casual wear on." I sat down in a desk. Kori set down her books on desk next to me and lowered herself down with her arms crossed in attempt to pout.

All through science class, my mind kept pulling at the thought that had been eating me up for days now. _How do I protect my friends from myself? _My stomach began to churn and I felt that gnawing feeling that I would get when something was bugging me that I couldn't resolve. I clutched my stomach in an effort to numb the pain. I had no idea what the teacher was saying. I wasn't focused. I closed my eyes and began to try and concentrate on the ball of pain my stomach. Then I concentrated on my feet and my hands. The more I focused on anything but the pain in my gut, the more it faded away. Then I started to enter the meditation state. I focused on my heartbeat…nothing else. Soon the voices around me drifted away until all I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears. _Thump, thump, thump, thump. _Slowly, the heartbeat slowed…_thump, thump… _until it stopped. I freaked out. I grasped my chest trying to feel for my heartbeat. It wasn't there. My eyes shot open. I wasn't in the classroom. I was kneeling on raw ground. There was red dirt all around me, and an intense feeling that something was watching. The sky was pitch black with no clouds, stars, or moon. There was no vegetation anywhere to be seen, and the air was musky. My hands still on my chest I squeezed my eyes shut. I hoped that this was all a dream. I hoped that when I opened my eyes, I'd be in the classroom again. But my hope was lost when I opened my eyes to the same scene. Then came a growl. It was deep and menacing.

"Who's there?" I demanded trying my hardest to show no emotion in my voice.

"I think you know." Came the deep voice. I did know. I knew exactly whom it was, but I wasn't going to admit it.

"I live inside this person,

For a very twisted way

I make them thrash and bleed and scream,

With only me to blame

I can trick them into believing

That I am not so strong

But as I rip and rip again

They find that they were very wrong

I can lie very well

And I'll damn you to hell

I can tell you now that I am only an inconvenience

I can turn trust into lust

Let hate shatter their fate

And I'm here to see it through

That their life,

Up until the end,

Can only be more screwed

I love to cover with sugar,

The promises I say to keep

And then watch as the wither

As if they were at the bottom of the ocean

With weights bound to their feet

As I beat until you burst

As I smile knowing that I was a curse

As I drive them to the end

A constant shadow on their soul

All that I can say

Is that I am trapped deep in you

And I only laugh

As you try to resist me

But little do you know

I am the very reason that makes you strive

I am the very thing that keeps alive

I am the thing that keeps your dark blood pumping…"

I clutched my ears as my father's voice tore into me like a hungry panther into meat.

"Help Sarah. Please what do I do?" I whispered with my hands still clamped over my ears.

"It's no use to ask for help, dearest child of mine. For your sister has joined me."

I stopped everything. I looked up. I didn't know where his voice was coming from, but that didn't stop me.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I screamed. "Sarah would never join you!"

"She joined me from the moment she was born. Since her first breath of life, she was banned from heaven because of what she was going to do. And so were you."

I screamed. I pounded my fists into the ground. _No, not Sarah! She did nothing! She shouldn't be damned to this hell!_ Tears of anger streamed from my eyes. I collapsed helplessly onto the dirt.

"Why didn't she tell me that she was going to hell?" I asked out loud.

"I didn't want you to worry about me." I looked up in shock. Sarah was standing in the shadows with her head down. I stood up, running to her. But before I could reach her, she vanished. I slammed into the ground.

"Sarah?" I cried silently.

I began to feel a burning in my stomach. Then I realized my heart was the thing in pain. I grasped my chest, hugging myself. The pain became more intense until I couldn't bear it. I screamed in pain. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Rachelle?"

"Hey Rae!"

I opened my eyes. The entire class was looking at me, including the teacher. I looked around at the confused faces. That's when I realized I had been crying. I wiped the tears away with my sleeve. As I pulled my hand away from my eyes I noticed something. On both my hands, their sides where completely bruised from pounding the ground.

"Ms. Roth, are you okay?" Asked the teacher with an alarmed look on her face.

I couldn't find my voice. I guessed that I looked pathetic with my eyeliner smeared and my scared expression. I jumped up and ran out the door. I heard the teacher yelling at me, but I ignore her demands that I come back. I ran straight out the school doors. I couldn't run all the way back home, and my legs felt like rubber underneath my weight. I dropped to my knees behind the school. I took refuge behind a group of bushes that backed up to the gym's walls.

"Not Sarah…" I kept saying. "She doesn't deserve hell…"

I lost track of time, I didn't even hear the bell ring that indicated the end of the school day, or the rush of students trying to escape the campus. It wasn't until Kori and Richard found me that I realized where I was.

"What happened, Rachelle?" Asked Kori in a gently voice.

I still didn't have a voice. It was caught somewhere in my throat. All that came out was a moan of sorrow and pain.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything." Richard said looking at me with pity in his eyes.

"I have to save her." I sobbed. "Sarah. I have to get her out of there."

"Out of where?" Kori asked, still trying not to push me out of my comfort zone.

"Hell. She's in hell. She damned to hell. She doesn't deserve it, any of it!" I cried. Soon, my sorrow turned into anger. I had to control myself. I couldn't let my emotions take over me, especially anger. I knew that when I became uncontrollably angry, I became a monster, a dark, menacing monster. I took in deep breaths. After some time, I shakily got up and walked back to Richard's car. I waited in there with Richard as Kori ran back into the school to grab my backpack and homework.

The ride home was so silent it almost made me deaf. As soon as we reached home, Kori called work and told them I was sick. I would have stopped her, but I was asleep in my room. Somehow, going to hell and seeing your dead sister, made me exhausted.

I awoke two hours later. It was early evening. I slowly sat myself up, trying not to get up to fast. Otherwise, my head would start to spin. I sheepishly walked down the hall, past the kitchen, and into the living room. Kori and Richard were doing homework on the coffee table silently. I groaned a weak, "Hey." And sat down on the couch besides Richard.

"We have to go shopping sometime. No use just hiding in bed." Kori teased. I knew she was only trying to make things better, but I didn't need her jokes right now.

"I'm not going shopping." I growled. "Besides, you don't even have a date."

"Yeah, I do. While you were asleep a guy called me." She said cheerfully.

"Who?" I asked pretending to have an interesting in what she was saying.

"That new kid, Garfield. He just came to our school two weeks ago, and when I was packing up to leave, I found a note in my locker. It was from him saying that he has had a crush on me ever since he saw me on the first day of school!" She sounded really girly at that moment. I struggled not to roll my eyes.

"Have you ever even met this Garfield before?" I asked.

"No, but Richard has. It turns out that the two of them are childhood buddies.

"Actually, we were like friends for a month before I moved here and had to start all over." I could see a flash of sadness in his eyes. I knew that something horrible had happened to him, some childhood horror, but he didn't seem like he wanted to talk about it, so I never asked him about it.

"Well, he still called me and asked me to the prom, so now I have a date. And tomorrow, no matter what, we are going shopping for dresses!" She insisted. I couldn't help myself. I rolled my eyes in a dramatic way.

"There is absolutely no way that I'm going shopping for a stupid dress!" I bellowed.

Yet, the next day, after school, Kori dragged me to the shopping mall. I pouted the entire way through. I pretty much did nothing but gag at every dress Kori picked out for me, and walk with my arms folded across my chest in a rebellious way.

"You have to try one on sometime!" Kori complained. She was holding up another dress. I had my finger pointed into my mouth, indicating I hated it.

"Not if I can help it."

I sat down in a chair next to the dressing rooms. Kori stomped off to go put the dress back on its rightful rack. Seconds later, she came back with yet another gown. This time she grabbed my arm and shoved me into the closest dressing rooms. She flung the dress over the door and slammed it in my face.

"You aren't getting out unless I see you in that dress!" I heard Kori yell from outside the small room. I gave a loud, frustrating sigh. I thought about using my powers to walk right on out of the stall, but I dismissed it when I heard a small girl's voice.

"Let's go in that one mommy!" She exclaimed. I heard the door of the stall adjacent to me open and close. _Damn it! _ Now I couldn't use my powers. Then it occurred to me I didn't have to use my powers to get out. All I had to do was crawl under the stall's sidewall. I got down on my hands and knees. I stuck my head between the gap between the floor and the dressing room's wall.

"I'm not that stupid!" Chirped Kori, standing in the dressing room I was trying to escape in. I groaned and crawled back through. _I guess the only way to get out of this place is by putting on that dress…_ I picked up the gown and lay it on the bench beside me. I pulled off my shirt and skirt. Once, I was fully undressed except for my underwear, I actually held up the dress to look at it. At first glance it looked like a plain black dress with straps that drooped around the shoulder instead of over the shoulder. But when I took a good look at it, I realized it was actually a deep, dark purple with an embroidered floral pattern of some sort in black. But it wasn't those cheesy floral patterns, it was the small detailed ones. The gown had somewhat of a flare to it, but nothing obnoxious.

"Are you done yet?" Kori asked impatiently.

"Yes." I said opening the door. I only opened it four inches or so. "Do I have to come out and show the whole world?"

"Well duh. If you can't even show a few people in a dressing room, then how are you going to show everybody at the prom?" She yanked the door all the way open, revealing me to anyone in the room. I moaned in embarrassment as Kori gaped at me. She smiled.

"It's perfect!" She piped.

"But I'm not doing my hair or anything else…" I warned.

"Nothing else." She promised. "Except for jewelry." She closed the door again and waited for me to get back into my casual wear. We bought the dress at the counter.

I found myself being lugged through the mall by Kori, with a bag that carried my prom dress, dangling from my wrist. We went into every jewelry store in the world, at least that's what it felt like. By the end of the day, we had bought my prom dress, Kori's prom dress, jewelry, and shoes to go with our dresses.

"Back so soon?" Asked Richard sarcastically as we walked through the front door. "It's only 5:00p.m." He was right; we had been gone since school got out at 3:15p.m.

"It was torture!" I complained setting down my bags of our purchases.

"I know you had fun." Teased Kori sitting down on the couch.

"Now we have to go to work in an hour!" I moaned.

We unloaded our shopping bags and got ready for work.


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 18

The day of the Prom was hell. The entire day I was dying of sleep deprivation because the night before I kept having nightmares of Sarah. She was writhing in pain among the flames of hell. I saw her mouth shaping out the words 'help me please.' But I couldn't hear her voice. Not even her screams of pain, and anguish. I tried to help her, but it was like my body spoke a whole another language. No matter I hard I tried to rescue her, all I could do was stand there and watch her being strangled by the flames of hell. I awoke screaming with tears staining my cheeks and pillow. Kori sat straight up trying to comfort me. In the morning, I acted as if nothing happened. I was trying to forget about it. But to no prevail, the dream kept eating me away. I had to held Sarah. She didn't deserve to be in hell. I knew that what my father had said about her being there because she was doomed to hell the day she drew in her first breath was true.

"You've been exceedingly quiet. You going to be okay for the Prom tonight?" Kori asked me as we packed our backpacks. The school day had been long and I was not in any shape to even be thinking about the Prom.

"I'm fine…" I mumbled. We walked out of the school's main building and joined Richard in the parking lot.

Richard saw my solemn expression and decided it'd be best if he left me alone. Smart guy.

The entire way home, I just stared out the window and the blurring scenery.

As soon as we got home, I collapsed on my bed. My head was spinning. _How do I save Sarah?_ I replayed my nightmare. Her soft face distorted by creases of torment.

"Rachelle?" Kori slipped through he door.

"Uh?" I moaned into the pillow.

"I know that you're haunted with a past and present that I could never understand, but please, for one night, just forget about it and have fun." She lay down beside me.

"Thanks for the inspiration, but I can't have fun when my sister is in hell, my father wants to capture, my mother wanted my sister and me dead, and my ex-boyfriend is trying to kill after he killed my sister."

"I know this sounds cheesy and all, but don't you think that your sister would have wanted you to go to Prom and fun for one night?" Kori asked.

"Yeah…" I whispered.

I didn't really like the personal touchy, touchy business, but I let Kori give me a friendly, heart felt hug.

The following hours were filled with agony. Kori forced me into the bathroom where she did my make up and hair. Even though my hair was usually short, it had grown in the past month and a half. It was long enough to put up in a bun like hair-do. My angular cut hair was pinned to my head like a bun. Kori even put some black gem pins in my hair in a random manner. I had black eyeliner on and purple eye shadow and some blush on as my make up. But the purple eye shadow was a nice shade of purple, not a bruise colored purple.

Then she rushed me out of the bathroom so she could get ready. I slipped into my dress. Though I would die before admitting this, I thought I didn't look too bad in the dress. But the worst wasn't over. It was a long battle when Kori attempted to spray some perfume on me. I almost ruined her hard work on my hair trying to fight her off. But it ended up well, I didn't mess up my hair and I managed to get away with no perfume on.

"Will you help me zip this up?" Kori asked turning around so I could zip up her dress. She was wearing a deep red empire dress. The skirt of the dress was layered and it was strapless. She had left her hair down, but had curled it and put a tiara kind of headband on.

"Sure." I said zipping up the back of the dress.

She admired herself in the mirror for a minute or so and then, content with what she saw, finally walked out of the bedroom. Then it hit me. I started feeling all self-conscious. I had never worn a gown like this and down my hair. What would Richard think? Would he laugh? I procrastinated by picking at my hair with a pretend problem and straightening my dress. I even thought about putting on nail polish to waist time. But that was too far. I opened the door to find Richard. His hand was outstretched like he was just going to knock on the door before I opened it.

"Hey." O mumbled trying not to look in his eyes. I felt the wave of self-consciousness over power me. My cheeks flushed red.

"Hey, Rae. Nice dress." He smiled. He had notice my being uncomfortable with being dolled up and was not being sympathetic. "Wow, you look nice. That dress really brings out the outer beauty in you." I knew he was teasing me.

"Shut up." I growled finally gathering enough courage to look him in the eye.

"Well, this is for you…" he said taking my hand in his and slipping a cortège around my wrist. It had the usual rose and little white flowers put together to form an arrangement.

"Thanks, just what I needed. More girly crap." I teased in a sarcastic tone.

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Kori yelled running for the door. She flung it open. In the door way was a short looking guy with blonde hair that fell just in front of his eyes. He had on the normal male prom wear, a black tux and a tie. He held out a bouquet of flowers and a cortege. Kori took them blushing.

"H-hey Kori." Stammered Garfield.

"Hey Garfield. You ready?" She asked still blushing.

I couldn't take the pitiful scene of the two blushing idiots. I walked up to Kori.

"So this is your date?" I asked looking him up and down.

"You must be Kori's friend…" He waited for me to say my name.

"Rachelle." I answered looking at Kori and then back to Garfield.

"Hey Gar! What's up?" Richard asked giving his old buddy a pound on the fists.

While the two boys chatted, Kori and I put the flowers that she had received from Garfield in a vase.

"He's so cute!" Kori squealed in delight.

"Sure." I sighed.

After much impatience and waiting, we departed the house, Kori with Garfield in his car, and Richard and me in his car.

"Rae? I know how you've been having a tough time lately…" Richard began.

I sighed a long loud sigh. I didn't want to talk about my problems. "Well, I know that my life will never measure up to yours, but just so you know, I had problems when I was a kid, too." He never looked at me when he spoke; he kept his eyes on the rode.

"You don't have to tell me anything." I whispered.

"I feel like I have to tell you my past because you've trusted me with yours. When I was really little, my parents worked at a circus. When I was old enough, they started to teach me how to flip and swing on the trapeze and what not. But they only performed once in a while. Otherwise, they worked as janitors. But the day they died, was when the entire circus building, and all in it, where held hostage. They man behind the terrorist attack, I'll never know. But I do remember that he had this mad look in his eye that scared me. I saw them die. I saw my parents bleed to death right in front of me. The psycho had slit their throats because they where helping the innocent people go out the trap door that was used in the magic show. It was the most horrific thing that had ever happened to me…" His voice stopped. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure he wanted me to say something or just let him be.

"I'm sorry." I started to feel guilty that I had made him feel obligated to telling me this. "Let's not ruin tonight with our pasts."

He took a brief moment to look at me with a smile. We pulled into the school's parking lot. We got out of Richard's car and made out way to the familiar school grounds. The Prom was being held in the gym and cafeteria, which was conveniently connected to the gym.

As we walked to the gym, I observed the decorations that hung from the school's halls and walls.

"Wow, the school looks different." Richard commented.

I nodded in agreement. When we entered the cafeteria we saw Kori and her date. We joined up with them and entered the gym. The entire room was dimly lit, and had balloons and flowers everywhere. There was a huge banner that read 'Prom Night!' in big bold letters. In the front, where they took your photograph, there was a white arch that had grape vines intertwined in its structure with a backdrop of a vineyard behind it.

"Do we have to get our picture taken?" I asked.

"Yep." Richard pulled me towards the backdrop and arch. I impatiently listened to the photographer's directions and then the camera flashed and we looked at our picture on the screen of the digital camera. I was forcing a smile.

I wanted to put off the dancing for as long as I could, so I took Richard over to where the refreshments were.

"Hey you guys!" Kori called from the dance floor. She was spinning and twirling to the music with Garfield.

"Com'n Richard, dance with us." Garfield exclaimed with a wide smile. He looked really idiotic with his grin and blushed cheeks as he dance around with Kori who was just as pathetic as he.

Richard stepped in front of me and held out his hand. I looked at it then at him.

"You honestly think that I can dance?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

He didn't answer. He only smiled and bent down and took my hand in his. At that moment, I was thinking about how this scene would make it on the cheesiest of cheesy movies. Richard pulled me towards where Kori and Garfield were dancing. He placed one of his hands on my waist and the other was holding my hand and rose. I reluctantly put my hand on his shoulder. At that moment, it really accrued that I didn't know how to dance. I almost fell backwards when Richard took a step forward, forcing me to go backwards. He caught me with both hands. I blushed and looked away, not wanting him to see me with that emotion. I blushed even harder when he said, "So you're blushing? That means you like it when I save you." He smiled a really dorky smile. A little embarrassed and angry, I tried to struggle out of his grip, but he pulled me closer.

"I was only kidding, Rae." He laughed. He was obviously satisfied with getting me mad. I glared at him. He took my hand back up and got ready to dance. This time I was ready for it. When he stepped backwards, I stepped with him. Then he stepped to the side. I followed him. I grew less tense as I got used to stepping to the music with Richard.

"See, it's not so bad." Richard teased. He then spun me into him. He grinned and then spun me back out. As I spun I let one hand go out. I stopped spinning with one arm outstretched. Then I got a little confused when someone grabbed it rather hard and yanked me out of Richard's hand. I hit something hard. I looked up to see if some retard was trying to make a smooth move on me, but soon found out other wise.

"Don't you look nice tonight?" George commented looked me up and down. I frowned.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

"It's not that hard. Jump High is the only high school in this city and I figured you'd be here and then I found out that there was a Prom and decided to come and see if you were going. As it turns out, you did and now here we are." He explained with a smug look in his eye.

"Well, I underestimated you. I would have never thought that someone like you would ever be that smart." I was only trying to piss him off. Bad idea. I saw the heat rising in him. He was so ready to kill me right there in front of everyone.

"Don't make a scene." I growled through gritted teeth. I was afraid that he would try to hurt me here so then I'd have to use my dark powers to protect Richard and me.

"Then will you come quietly?" He asked still holding me in his grasp.

"Get away from her!" Richard warned grabbing me back, but George was quicker and pulled me away from Richard.

"Ok! Let's go outside and talk about it." I tried desperately to get away from the room full of innocent people.

"Fine." George said looking at Richard up and down.

George shoved me through the gym's side doors. Richard followed. As soon as the door shut behind us I felt a firm push to my back. I fell forward and hit the ground with a thud. I didn't expect for George to hurt me right of the bat. I rolled over on my back.

"Don't hurt her!" Richard yelled running at George. But George gave a hard round kick to his chest, sending Richard falling to the ground. I stood up rubbing my head.

"Ok, George, I'll go back with you. But don't hurt anybody else!" I said walking towards him. Richard looked up in alarm.

"No, Rachelle!" He attempted to get up but the blow to his chest probably bruised his ribs. He clutched his side.

Truth be told, I knew what I was doing. The only way that George wouldn't kill Richard or any of my friends is to give him what he wanted…me. He wanted me dead so that's why I needed to hand myself over.

I looked away from Richard. George grabbed my arm and bent over; when he straightened, his white wings where spread wide. He started to fly up but I pulled my arm away.

"I don't need you to lead me. I can fly by myself. I won't try to escape." He seemed to see the honesty in my eyes because he let go. I closed my eyes. I hadn't used my wings for a long time so I had to consecrate harder. I bent over in the same way George did. My gray wings stretched out into the sky. I looked back at Richard who was watching me intently. He probably didn't believe that I would actually leave him. But I had to. I jumped up and gave a flap of my wing and rose above the ground. Richard's face turned into anguish.

"Rachelle!" He yelled struggling to stand up. I had second thought about my plan, but soon disregarded them when I thought about what my father had said earlier about how everyone I knew was in danger because of me. I don't know why, but I stayed there looking down at Richard for a long time. "Rae, please don't do this. I know you think will help, but it's just like when I said that if you killed yourself then we would suffer from the loss more then we would suffer if you were here. Rachelle if you go…" He broke off looking away.

George saw that Richard was getting to me and I was thinking about not going so he reached out to grab my arm. I gasped as I saw George picking a shiny object out of his boot. It was a small dagger. The next few moments went by so fast that it was all a blur. I heard Richard screaming, I felt a stinging feeling in my gut and then I could hear air whistling past my ears as I fell towards the ground. While falling to earth, a blur of green flashed passed my eyes. Then I heard another yell. But I couldn't tell whom it came from or if it was the sound of my body smacking the ground. But I realized it had to be a scream because when I opened my eyes, Richard was holding me in his arms. I tried to move but a sharp pain hit me. I felt my stomach and when I pulled away my hand there was blood. I winced as Richard set me on the grass.

"Call 911!" Someone screamed. I knew it wasn't Richard, and sure as hell wasn't George, so then who had screamed it. As I listened closer to the shrieks for help I realized it was Kori.

"K-Kori?" I stuttered. It was getting harder to breath and talk.

"Is she ok?" Kori asked. I saw her shadow come over me.

"I'm f-fine…" I reached back down to my wound. "Don't b-bother calling the police or ambulance. I can t-take care of myself…l-literally."

"Is she going to die?" Asked an unrecognizable voice. It was a male, but that's all I knew.

"No, Gar. She'll be fine. I forgot that she could heal herself."

"Garfield?" I asked. Why was he there and why did Kori talk so freely about my powers in front of him.

"Shhh. Don't talk, we'll carry you to the car and we can go home." Richard suggested picking me back up.

I woke up in my bed the next morning. I felt better, but still a little uneasy. I knew that my body had healed itself by then. I walked out of the bedroom and into the living room. Kori, Richard, and Garfield were all talking on the couch.

"Hey guys." I said in my husky voice.

"You're better all ready?" Garfield asked in astonishment.

"Yeah. Can I talk to you Kori?" I asked. She stood and started to walk towards me, but then Garfield took her hand and pulled her back down.

"Actually, I need talk to you first." He said looking at me with big eyes. "I know you're wondering about a few things. See at the Prom last night, Kori and I saw that dude drag you and Richard outside so we followed. But instead following you guys out that side door, we went around the building climbed the latter leading to the roof and watched you from up there. When he was going to stab you I…well…" He trailed off. He was obviously struggling to find the right words.

"Garfield has an ability to morph into…animals. He special like you, Rae." Kori explained. I knew she meant that 'special' comment in a good way, not the special handicapped way.

"Oh. So you…" I couldn't remember seeing him, or any animal.

"I was a little late, but I morphed into a panther and leaped out and just barely caught the edge of the dude's wing. But it was enough to tear it and he fell to the ground. When I morphed back to my normal self, he was gone."

"So you were that green blob I saw?" I arched my brow.

"I don't know how or why, but whenever I morph, I'm green. I just started to have this ability a year ago after coming back from Africa." He explained.

"Oh." I said turning to head back towards the kitchen to make some tea.

"Rae?" Kori asked.

"What."

"I know I should have asked first, but I told Gar all that I know about you and your past." She looked a little guilty.

"That's ok. He saw me with wings, he would know something was up." I turned the stove on. Kori walked back to the group. I waited for my hot water then for the tea bag to release its flavor. As I stood there waiting, I thought about Sarah and my nightmares. I had to get her out of hell somehow. But for now, I had to work on a plan. I was going to save my little sister…even if it kills me.


	20. Author's note

AUTHOR'S NOTE

There is going to be a second story if you are interested. It will be called "A Dark Blessing" so if you want to look for it, you know what its title is.

Special Thanks To… Zarola 

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Forgive me, but the computer automatically capitalizes the usernames so sorry. Also, this list is in no particular order. I thank each and every one of my reviewers and hope you'll read my second story. If you have a comment feel free to review this or email me. Thanks again!


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